University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


THE  gEORgiCS  OF  VIRgiL 


GEORGICS 

OF  rmgiL 

TRANSLATED  FROM  THE 
LATIN  INTO  ENGLISH  BT 
J.  W.tJMACKAIL  FELLOW  OF 
BALLIOL  COLLEGE  OXFORD 

ilium  nostri  possunt 
mutare  labores 


i 

The  ^Riverside  'Tress 

This  edition  is  issued  by  special  permission  of 
.  <*Jl4ackail' s  English  publishers. 


GEORGICS.  BOOK  I. 


HAT  makes  the  cornfields  glad ;  beneath 
what  star  it  befits  to  upturn  the  ground, 
z^Waecenas,  and  clasp  the  vine  to  her 
elm ;  the  tending  of  oxen  and  the  charge  of  the  keeper 
ofajlock;  and  all  the  skill  of  thrifty  bees ;  of  this 
will  I  begin  to  sing.  Tou,  O  bright  splendours  of  the 
world,  who  lead  on  the  rolling  year  through  heaven ; 
Liber  and  gracious  Ceres,  if  by  your  gift  Earth  ex- 
changed Chaonian  acorns  for  the  swelling  ear,  and 
tempered  her  draughts  of^Achelous  with  the  discov- 
ered grape ;  and  you,  O  Fauns,  guardian  presences 
of  the  country,  trip  it  together,  Fauns  and  ^Dryad 
girls;  of  your  gifts  I  sing.  ^4nd  thou,  Neptune,  at 
whose  mighty  trident- stroke  Earth  first  bore  the 
neighing  steed;  and  thou,  O  forester,  whose  three 

7 


GEORGICS 

hundred  snow-white  bullocks  crop  the  rich  Cean 
brakes;  even  thou9  leaving  thy  native  woodland  and 
thy  Lycean  lawns,  Tan  of  Tegea,  shepherd  of  the 
Hock,  so  thou  love  thy^Maenalus,  be  gracious  and 
come ;  and  ^Minerva  inventress  of  the  olive,  and 
thou,  boy  teacher  of  the  crooked  plough,  and  Silvanus 
carrying  thy  slim  cypress  uprooted;  gods  and  god- 
desses all  who  keep  the  fields  in  your  care,  or  who 
feed  the  fresh  plants  from  no  sown  seed,  or  who  send 
down  on  the  crops  plentiful  rain  from  heaven;  and 
thou,  whatsoever  place  thou  art  soon  to  hold  in  the 
gods'  consistory,  whether  thou  wilt  look  on  cities  and 
have  earth  in  keeping,  and  the  vast  world  receive 
thee  as  fosterer  of  harvests  and  sovereign  of  seasons, 
and  wreathe  thy  brows  with  thy  mother  s  myrtle;  or 
whether  thou  come  as  god  of  the  infinite  sea,  and  thy 
deity  only  be  adored  of  sailors,  to  thee  utmost  Thule 
be  tributary,  thy  hand  Tethys  purchase  for  her  daugh- 
ter with  dower  of  all  her  waves ;  or  whether  thou  set 
thyself  as  a  new  sign  among  the  lingering  months, 
where  space  opens  between  Erigone  and  the  follow- 
ing Claws,  while  before  thee  the  blazing  Scorpion 
draws  in  his  arms,  and  retreats  from  more  than  the 
allotted  space  of  heaven;  whatso  thou  wilt  be — -for 

8 


BOOK    I 

hell  cannot  hope  thy  reign,  nor  may  so  dread  a  desire 
of  reigning  ever  be  thine,  though  Cj-reece  be  enrapt  in 
her  Elysian  plains,  and  Proserpine  care  not  to  fol- 
low the  mother  who  calls  her  back :  grant  a  fair  pas- 
sage, and  favour  my  bold  endeavour,  and  with  me 
pitying  the  countryfolk  who  know  not  of  the  way,  ad- 
vance, and  even  now  learn  to  be  called  on  inprayer. 
N  early  spring,  when  chilly  moisture  trickles 
from  the  hoar  hills  and  the  crumbling  clod 
thaws  in  the  west  wind,  even  then  would  I 
have  the  bull  begin  to  groan  over  the  deep-driven 
plough  and  the  share  glitter  with  polish  of  the  fur- 
row. That  field  at  last  replies  to  the  greedy  farmer  s 
prayers,  which  has  twice  felt  the  sun,  twice  the  frost; 
that  bursts  his  granaries  with  overflowing  harvests. 
But  ere  yet  our  iron  cleaves  the  unknown  plain, 
be  our  care  first  to  learn  the  winds,  and  the  sky's 
shifting  mood,  and  the  ground's  native  nurture  and 
dress,  and  what  each  quarter  will  bear  and  what 
each  will  rejeSt.  Here  corn,  there  grapes  come  more 
prosperously ;  yonder  the  tree  drops  her  seedlings, 
and  unbidden  grasses  kindle  into  green.  Seest  thou 
not  how  Tmolus  sends  scent  of  saffron,  India  ivory, 
the  soft  Sabaeans  their  spice ;  but  the  naked  Chaly- 

9 


GEORGICS 

bes  steel9  and  Tontus  the  castor  drug,  Epirus  mares 
for  Elean  palms  ?  From  of  old  Nature  laid  such 
laws  upon  certain  regions,  an  everlasting  covenant, 
what  time  ^Deucalion  of  old  cast  on  the  unpeopled 
globe  those  stones  whence  the  hard  race  of  man  was 
born.  Come  therefore,  from  the  first  months  of  the 
year  straightway  let  the  strong  bulls  upturn  the  rich 
floor  of  earth,  and  the  full  strength  of  summer  suns 
bake  the  flat  clods  to  dust.  But  if  the  land  be  not 
fertile,  it  will  serve  to  ridge  it  by  shallow  furrows 
hard  on  <±Arfturus  rising ;  there,  lest  weeds  choke 
the  corn's  luxuriance ;  here,  lest  scant  moisture  leave 
a  barren  waste  of  sand. 

In  turn  likewise  shall  thou  let  the  stubbles  lie  fal- 
low, and  the  idle  field  crust  over  unstirred;  or  else 
there  under  changed  skies  sow  golden  spelt,  where 
before  thou  hadst  reaped  the  pea  with  wealth  of  rat- 
tling pods,  or  the  tiny  vetch  crop,  or  the  brittle  stalks 
and  rustling  underwood  of  the  bitter  lupin.  For  the 
field  is  drained  by  flax-harvest  and  wheat-harvest, 
drained  by  the  slumber-steeped  poppy  of  Lethe,  but 
yet  rotation  lightens  the  labour;  only  scorn  not  to 
soak  the  dry  soil  with  fattening  dung,  nor  to  scatter 
grimy  ashes  over  the  exhausted  lands.  Thus  too  the 

10 


BOOK    I 

fields  find  rest  in  change  of  crop;  nor  meanwhile 
are  thanks  lost  on  unploughed  land.  Often  likewise 
it  is  well  to  burn  barren  fields  and  consume  the  light 
stubble  in  crackling  fiame:  whether  that  earth  thence 
conceives  secret  strength  and  sustenance,  or  all  her 
evil  is  melted  away  and  her  useless  moisture  sweats 
out  in  the  fire ;  or  that  the  heat  opens  more  of  these 
dufts  and  blind  pores  that  carry  her  juices  to  the 
fresh  herbage ;  or  rather  hardens  and  binds  her  gap- 
ing veins  against  fine  rain  or  the  fierce  suns  mastery 
or  the  frostbite  of  the  searching  North. 

(jreat  service  withal  he  does  the  fields  who  breaks 
their  dull  clods  with  the  mattock  and  drags  osier  hur- 
dles over  them,  nor  from  high  Olympus  does  golden 
Ceres  regard  him  in  vain ;  or  he  who,  raising  ridges 
along  the  furrowed  plain,  again  turns  his  plough  to 
break  them  across,  and  labours  earth  incessantly  and 
makes  the  fields  own  his  sway. 

Tray  for  dripping  midsummers  and  clear  winters, 
O  husbandmen ;  from  winter  dust  the  spelt  grows 
strongest,  and  the  field  is  glad;  never  does  (JTWysia 
triumph  in  such  pride  of  tillage,  or  (jargarus  him- 
self wonder  at  his  harvests.  Why  tell  of  him,  who, 
when  the  seed  is  cast,  follows  close  over  the  field 


ii 


GEORGICS 

and  breaks  down  the  lumps  of  sticky  soil?  then  guides 
over  the  crops  chasing  runlets  from  the  river;  and 
when  the  blade  is  dying  on  the  scorched  and  feverous 
field,  look !  on  the  brow  of  the  slope  he  lures  the  wave 
from  her  channel;  the  falling  wave  wakens  a  hoarse 
chatter  among  the  smooth  pebbles,  and  gushes  cool 
over  the  parched  fields.  Why  of  him,  who,  lest  the 
stalk  sink  prone  under  the  heavy  ear,  grazes  dozvn 
the  rankness  of  the  cornfield  in  the  tender  blade,  when 
the  crop  first  levels  the  furrow?  or  who  gathers  and 
drains  away  the  moisture  of  the  marsh  with  porous 
gravel,  above  all  if  in  the  doubtful  months  the  floods 
go  out  on  the  river,  covering  all  the  broad  flats  with 
mud,  and  leave  pools  steaming  with  warm  moisture 
in  the  hollows. 

Nor  yet,  though  labours  of  men  and  oxen  have  so 
wrought  in  turning  the  soil,  are  the  villain  goose  and 
Strymonian  crane  and  the  bitter-fibred  succory  un- 
availing to  injure,  or  the  shade  to  harm.  Our  Lord 
himself  willed  the  way  of  tillage  to  be  hard,  and  long 
ago  set  art  to  stir  the  fields,  sharpening  the  wits  of 
man  ivith  care,  nor  suffered  his  realm  to  slumber  in 
heavy  torpor.  Before  Jove  no  tillers  made  the  fields 
subject;  not  even  might  the  plain  be  parted  by  land- 


12 


BOOK    I 

mark  or  boundary  line ;  men  gathered  to  a  common 
store,  and  unaided  and  unasked  earth  lore  all  things 
in  a  fuller  plenty .  He  it  was  who  gave  the  black 
snake  his  venom,  and  bade  wolves  ravin  and  the  sea 
be  tossed,  who  shook  the  honey  from  the  leaves  and 
tookjire  away,  and  stopped  the  brooks  that  ran  wan- 
dering with  wine :  that  so  practice  and  pondering 
might  slowly  forge  out  many  an  art,  might  seek  the 
corn-blade  in  the  furrow  and  strike  hidden jire from 
the  veins  of  flint.  Then  first  rivers  felt  the  hollowed 
alder,  then  the  sailor  gave  the  stars  their  number  and 
name,  Tleiads  and  Hyades  and  the  bright  Lyca- 
onian  Bear.  Then  was  invented  the  snare  to  catch 
game  and  the  treacherous  lime-twig,  and  the  ring 
of  dogs  round  the  wide  forest-lawn ;  and  even  now 
one  whips  the  wide  stream  and  searches  the  pool  with 
his  casting-net,  and  another  draws  his  lines  drip- 
ping from  the  sea.  Then  rigid  iron  and  the  blade  of 
the  shrill  saw  came — for  they  of  old  split  wood  in 
clefts  with  wedges  —  then  arts  many  in  sort;  no- 
thing but  yielded  to  unrelenting  toil  and  the  hard 
pressure  of  poverty.  Ceres  first  instructed  mortals  to 
upturn  earth  with  iron,  when  now  acorns  and  ar- 
bute-berries  were  failing  from  the  sacred  forest,  and 

13 


GEORGICS 

^Dodona  denied  them  sustenance.  Soon  the  labour 
of  the  cornfield  too  increased;  vile  mildew  must  de- 
vour the  stalk  and  the  thistle  lift  over  the  field  his 
lazy  spears:  the  crop  dwindles,  a  rough  forest  of 
clivers  and  burs  advances,  and  fruitless  darnel  and 
barren  wild-oats  reign  over  the  shining  tilth.  Nay, 
except  thou  wilt  harass  the  soil  with  ceaseless  mat- 
tock, and  frighten  off  the  birds  with  clamour,  and 
thy  pruning-hook  lop  the  darkening  rustic  shade  and 
thy  prayers  call  down  the  rain,  ah !  all  in  vain  wilt 
thou  eye  the  garner  pile  of  another,  and  allay  thine 
own  hunger  from  the  shaken  oak  in  the  woodland. 
Likewise  must  be  told  what  are  the  weapons  of 
the  hardy  countryfolk,  without  which  can  be  neither 
sowing  nor  springing  of  harvests:  the  share  first, 
and  the  heavy  strength  of  the  curved  plough,  and  the 
slow  rolling  wagons  of  our  Lady  ofEleusis,  sledges 
and  harrows  and  the  weary  weight  of  the  mattock ; 
withal  the  slight  wicker  ware  ofCeleus,  arbutus  hur- 
dles, and  lacchus'  mystical  winnowing-fan.  ^All 
these  thou  wilt  heedfully  provide  and  lay  up  long  in 
store,  if  the  divine  country  keeps  her  due  honour  in 
thine  eyes.  Early  the  forest  elm  is  bowed  by  main 
force  to  bend  into  a  share-beam,  and  takes  the  shape 


BOOK    I 

of  the  curving  plough;  to  the  stock  of  it  are  jilted 
the  long  eight-foot  pole,  the  two  mould-boards,  and 
the  double  back  of  the  share-head;  and  the  light  lime 
is  cut  to  season  for  the  yoke,  and  the  tall  beech  for  the 
plough-tail  that  is  to  turn  the  carriage  from  above 
and  behind,  and  oak  battens  are  hung  over  thejire 
for  the  smoke  to  search  them  through. 

I  can  repeat  to  thee  many  a  counsel  of  them  of 
old,  if  thou  shnnk  not  back  nor  weary  to  learn  of 
lowly  cares.  <^/fbove  all  must  the  threshing-floor  be 
levelled  with  the  ponderous  roller,  and  wrought  by 
hand  and  cemented  with  clinging  potter  s  clay,  that 
it  may  not  gather  weeds  nor  crack  in  the  reign  of 
dust,  and  be  playground  withal  for  manifold  de- 
stroyers. Often  the  tiny  mouse  builds  his  house  and 
makes  his  granaries  underground,  or  the  eyeless  mole 
scoops  his  cell;  and  in  chinks  is  found  the  toad,  and 
all  the  swarming  vermin  that  are  bred  in  earth;  and 
the  weevil,  and  the  ant  that  fears  a  destitute  old 
age,  plunder  the  great  pile  of  spelt. 

Look  thou  likewise,  when  the  walnut  in  the  wood- 
land attires  herself  in  wealth  of  blossom,  and  bends 
with  scented  boughs;  if  her  fruit  exceed,  the  corn 
will  keep  pace  with  it,  and  abundant  threshing  come 

15 


GEORGICS 

with  abundant  heat ;  but  if  her  shade  overflow  in 
luxuriance  of  leaf,  vainly  will  the  chaff-laden  straw 
be  beaten  on  the  winnowing-floor. 

In  truth  I  have  seen  many  a  sower  steep  his  seeds 
and  wash  them  beforehand  in  black  olive-lees,  that 
the  fruit  in  the  treacherous  pod  might  be  larger  and 
soften  quickly  even  over  a  little  Jire :  I  have  seen 
them,  though  long  chosen  and  toilsomely  approved, 
still  fall  off  unless  the  strong  hand  of  man  picked 
the  largest  year  by  year:  so  is  it  fated  that  all  things 
run  to  the  worse  and  fall  dropping  backwards;  even 
as  one  who  with  strain  of  oarage  urges  a  skiff  up 
stream,  if  once  he  slacken  his  arms,  the  prone  river 
current  sweeps  him  headlong  down. 

Likewise  must  we  no  less  regard  the  star  ofArc- 
turus  and  the  days  of  the  Kids  and  the  gleaming 
Serpent,  than  they  who  sailing  homeward  over  wind- 
swept seas  adventure  the  Tontic  and  the  straits  by 
z^/fbydus'  oyster-beds.  When  the  Scales  make  day- 
light and  sleep  equal  in  hours  and  just  halve  the 
globe  between  light  and  shadow,  set  your  bulls  at 
work,  O  men !  sow  the  barley -fields,  right  into  the 
showery  skirts  of  frost-bound  midwinter:  no  less  is 
it  time  to  cover  in  earth  the  flax-plant  and  the  corn- 
16 


BOOK    I 

poppy,  and  to  urge  on  the  belated  ploughs  while  the 
dry  soil  allows  it,  while  the  clouds  hang  aloft.  In 
spring  beans  are  sown ;  then  the  crumbling  furrows 
receive  thee  likewise,  clover  of  ^Jfrledia,  and  the 
yearly  care  of  the  millet  crop  approaches;  when  the 
milkwhite  Bull  with  gilded  horns  opens  the  year, 
and,  still  facing  him,  the  setting  "Dogs  tar  retires. 
But  if  for  wheaten  harvest  or  strong  spelt  thou  wilt 
work  thy  ground,  and  the  corn-ear  alone  is  thy  de- 
sire, first  let  the  ^Atlantides  be  at  their  morning 
setting  and  the  blazing  star  of  the  Cretan  Crown 
sink  away,  ere  thou  yield  their  debt  of  seed  to  the 
furrows,  or  ere  thou  hasten  to  intrust  the  year  s  hope 
to  an  unwilling  earth.  <*^Many  begin  before  the  set- 
ting of(^Maia;  but  a  harvest  of  empty  ears  mocks 
their  expectation.  If  indeed  thou  wilt  sow  the  vetch 
or  the  common  kidney-bean,  nor  despise  the  care  of 
the  Telusiac  lentil,  the  setting  Bear-warden  will 
send  thee  no  uncertain  sign ;  begin,  and  carry  thy 
sowing  on  to  the  mid-frost. 

To  this  end  the  golden  sun  rules  an  orbit  mea- 
sured out  in  certain  divisions  through  the  twelve- 
fold star-girdle  of  the  world.  Five  zones  are  placed 
in  heaven ;  whereof  one  ever  reddens  in  the  blazing 

17 


GEORGICS 

sun  and  ever  is  parched  by  his  fire;  and  round  it 
right  and  left  sweep  the  utmost  two,  stiff  with  blue 
ice  and  dark  with  showers;  two  between  these  and 
the  central  zone  are  granted  by  grace  of  the  gods  to 
weary  mortals,  and  through  both  a  path  is  drawn 
where  the  slant  procession  of  the  signs  may  turn. 
The  world,  rising  steeply  towards  Scythia  and  the 
T^hipean  fortresses,  sinks  sloping  to  Libya  and  the 
south.  This  pole  of  ours  is  ever  uplifted;  but  the  other 
black  Styx  and  the  deep  world  of  ghosts  see  under- 
neath their  feet.  Here  the  enormous  Serpent  glides 
forth,  wreathing  his  coils  in  fashion  of  a  river  around 
and  between  the  two  Bears,  the  Bears  that  dare  not 
dip  under  the  Ocean  floor:  there,  one  saith,  either 
dead  night  is  soundless,  and  the  gloom  thickens  in 
night's  perpetual  pall,  or  T)awn  returns  from  us  and 
leads  back  the  day ;  and  when  day  spring  touches  us 
with  his  panting  horses'  breath,  there  crimson  Hes- 
perus kindles  his  lamp  at  evenfall.  Hence  can  we 
foreknow  the  changeful  sky's  seasons,  hence  the  day 
of  harvest  and  the  time  of  sowing,  and  when  it  befits 
to  drive  our  oars  through  the  treacherous  sparkling 
sea,  when  to  launch  armed  fleets,  or  in  due  season 
lay  low  the  woodland  pine. 

18 


BOOK    I 

Neither  in  vain  do  we  mark  the  signs  in  their 
dawning  and  decease,  and  the  four  seasons  that 
make  equal  division  of  the  year.  Whensoever  chilly 
rain  keeps  the  husbandman  indoors,  many  a  thing, 
which  must  else  be  hurried  through  in  clear  weather 
afterward,  may  be  done  at  leisure ;  the  ploughman 
beats  out  the  stubborn  point  of  his  blunted  share ; 
one  hollows  troughs  out  of  the  tree ;  one  marks  the 
stamp  on  the  flock  or  the  figures  for  the  granary  - 
heaps ;  others  sharpen  stakes  and  forked  poles,  and 
sort^4merian  bands  for  the  trailing  vine.  Now  let 
the  basket  be  lightly  woven  of  briar-rods,  now  parch 
corn  over  the  fire  and  pound  it  in  the  stone.  Nay, 
and  even  on  holy  days  some  works  are  right  and  law- 
ful ;  no  scruple  forbids  to  guide  forth  the  rivulet,  to 
fence  off  the  cornfield,  to  set  snares  for  birds,  to  burn 
brambles,  and  to  plunge  the  bleating  flock  in  the 
healthful  stream :  often  the  driver  loads  his  slow- 
paced  donkey's  sides  with  oil  or  cheap  apples,  and 
returning,  carries  a  dressed  mill-stone  or  a  lump  of 
black  pitch  back  with  him  from  the  town. 

The  moon's  self  ordains  the  days  in  their  several 
order  to  be  diverse  in  luck  of  labour.  Shun  the  fifth, 
birthday  of  pale  Orcus  and  the  Eumenides ;  on  it 

'9 


GEORGICS 

earth  bore  that  accursed  brood,  Coeus  and  lapetus 
and  fell  Typhoeus,  and  the  brothers  that  leagued  to 
pluck  down  heaven.  Thrice  they  essayed  to  plant 
Ossa  on  Telion,  ay,  and  roll  up  leafy  Olympus  upon 
Ossa :  thrice  our  Lord  shattered  the  mountain  pile 
with  his  thunderbolt.  The  seventeenth  is  lucky  for 
setting  the  vine,  for  catching  and  breaking  oxen,  for 
stringing  loops  in  the  loom :  the  ninth  favours  run- 
aways, but  thwarts  the  thief. 

(*JVLany  a  thing  even  makes  better  way  in  the 
chill  of  night,  or  when  at  sundawn  earth  is  dewy 
under  the  orient  star.  By  night  the  light  stubbles,  by 
night  the  parched  meadows  are  better  mown;  cling- 
ing moisture  fails  not  through  the  night.  ^Andone 
I  know  keeps  awake  late  by  the  winter  firelight, 
and  points  torchwood  with  sharp  steel :  meanwhile, 
lightening  her  long  toil  with  song,  the  wife  runs  her 
ringing  comb  through  the  web,  or  boils  down  the 
sweet  liquid  must  over  the  fire  and  skims  with  leaves 
the  wave  of  the  bubbling  copper.  But  ruddy  corn 
is  cut  in  noon-day  heat,  and  in  noon-day  heat  the 
parched  grain  is  trodden  on  the  threshing-floor. 

Strip  to  plough,  strip  to  sow ;  winter  is  the  farm- 
er s  holiday,  and  the  husbandmenfeast  on  their  stores 

20 


BOOK    I 

all  through  the  frozen  time,  and  spread  the  banquet 
among  themselves  in  mirthful  round,  ^^lerry  win- 
ter bids  the  guest  and  lightens  the  heart ;  even  as 
when  laden  keels  at  last  touch  their  haven,  and  the 
rejoicing  mariners  hang  garlands  on  the  stern.  But 
then  nevertheless  is  the  season  to  strip  acorns  from 
the  oak  and  berries  of  the  laurel ,  the  olive  and  the 
blood-red  myrtle:  then  to  set  snares  for  the  crane 
and  nets  for  the  stag,  and  to  hunt  the  long-eared 
hare;  then  to  strike  down  the  fallow-deer  with  the 
whirling  stroke  of  the  hempen  Balearic  sling,  while 
snow  lies  deep,  while  ice  blocks  the  rivers. 

Why  tell  of  autumnal  storms  and  stars,  and  when 
now  the  day  is  briefer  and  the  summer  softer,  what 
watches  men  must  keep  ?  or  when  showerful  spring 
pours  down,  when  the  spiky  harvest  even  now  rip- 
ples on  the  plains,  and  when  the  green  blade  swells 
with  her  milky  grain  ?  Often  have  I  seen,  when  the 
husbandman  was  marching  in  his  reapers  to  the 
golden  fields  and  just  cutting  the  slim-stalked  bar- 
ley, how  all  the  winds,  clashing  in  battle,  would  tear 
right  from  the  roots  andjling  high  whole  breadths  of 
heavy  corn ;  in  so  black  a  gust  would  the  storm  sweep 
light  blade  and  flying  straw  away.  Often  likewise 


21 


GEORGICS 

the  waters  of  heaven  descend  in  infinite  armies,  and 
clouds  charged  from  the  deep  thicken  into  foul  wea- 
ther black  with  thunder  showers :  the  sky  pours  sheer 
down  and  washes  away  the  glad  crops  and  labours 
of  the  oxen  withjlooding  rain ;  ditches  Jill,  and  river 
channels  swell  roaring,  and  the  narrow  seas  seethe 
and  smoke.  Our  Lord  himself  in  the  midnight  of  the 
storm-clouds  wields  thejlashing  bolts  in  his  right 
hand:  at  their  shock  ancient  Earth  trembles,  wild 
beasts  slink  away,  and  mortal  hearts  throughout  the 
nations  bow  low  in  terror:  he  hurls  down  his  flam- 
ing shaft  on  ^Athos  or  T^hpdope  or  the  Ceraunian 
heights;  the  south  winds  blow  fiercer  and  the  rain 
streams  drenching  down,  and  the  rushing  wind 
wails  over  forest  and  shore. 

Fearing  this,  regard  thou  heaven  in  his  months 
and  seasons,  whither  the  chill  star  of  Saturn  with- 
draws, to  what  circles  of  the  sky  the  Cyllenian  wan- 
derer turns  his  fire.  <^/fbove  all,  worship  thou  the 
gods,  and  bring  great  Ceres  her  yearly  offerings, 
doing  sacrifice  on  the  springing  grass  close  on  the 
verge  of  dying  winter,  when  now  spring  skies  are 
clear.  Then  lambs  are  fat,  and  then  wines  mellow- 
est, then  sleep  is  sweet  where  the  shade  thickens  on 


22 


BOOK    I 

the  hill.  To  Ceres  let  all  thy  rustic  folk  do  service; 
to  her  wash  thou  the  honeycomb  with  milk  and  soft 
wine,  and  for  luck  let  the  victim  thrice  encircle  the 
springing  crops  and  all  the  band  of  thy  fellows  keep 
it  joyful  company,  and  loudly  call  Ceres  into  the 
homestead:  neither  let  any  lay  sickle  to  the  ripe  ears 
till  in  Ceres' praise,  his  brows  wreathed  with  twisted 
oak9  he  move  in  rude  dances  and  chant  her  hymn. 

t^And  these  things  that  we  might  avail  to  learn 
by  sure  tokens,  the  heats  and  the  rains  and  the  winds 
that  bring  cold  weather,  our  Lord  himself  hath  or- 
dained what  the  moon  in  her  month  should  fore- 
shadow 9  at  what  sign  the  south  wind  should  drop, 
what  husbandmen  should  often  mark  and  keep  their 
cattle  nearer  the  farmyard.  Straightway,  when  gales 
are  gathering,  either  the  seaways  begin  to  shudder 
and  heave,  and  a  dry  roaring  to  be  heard  on  the 
mountain  heights,  or  the  far-echoing  beaches  to  stir, 
and  a  rustling  swell  through  the  woodland.  Even 
in  that  hour  the  rude  surge  spares  not  the  curving 
hull,  when  gulls jly  swiftly  back  from  mid  ocean  and 
press  screaming  shoreward,  or  when  sea-coot  play 
on  dry  land,  and  the  heron  leaves  his  home  on  the 
marshes  and  soars  high  above  the  mist.  Often  like- 


GEORGICS 

wise  when  a  gale  is  toward  wilt  thou  see  shooting 
stars  glide  down  the  sky,  and  through  the  darkness 
of  night  long  trails  of  flame  glimmer  in  their  track : 
often  light  chaff  and  fallen  leaves  flutter  in  air9  or 
floating  feathers  dance  on  the  water's  surface.  But 
when  it  lightens  from  the  fierce  northern  regions, 
and  when  Eurus  and  Zephyrus  thunder  through 
their  hall,  the  whole  countryside  is  afloat  with  brim- 
ming ditches,  and  every  mariner  at  sea  furls  his 
soaking  sails.  Never  is  rain  on  us  unwarned:  either 
as  it  gathers  in  the  valley  bottoms  the  crane  soars 
high  inflight  before  it;  or  the  heifer  gazing  up  into 
the  sky  snuffs  the  breeze  with  wide-opened  nostril, 
or  the  shrill  swallow  darts  circling  about  the  pond, 
and  the  frogs  in  the  mire  intone  their  old  complaint. 
Often  likewise  the  ant  carries  forth  her  eggs  from 
her  secret  chambers  along  her  narrow  trodden  path, 
and  a  vast  rainbow  drinks,  and  leaving  their  feed- 
ing-ground in  long  column  armies  of  rooks  crowd 
with  flapping  wings.  Then  seafowl  many  in  sort, 
and  birds  that  search  the  fresh  pools  round  the  Asian 
meadows  of  Cayster,  thou  mayest  see  eagerly  splash- 
ing showers  of  spray  over  their  shoulders,  and  now 

ducking  in  the  channels,  now  running  up  into  the 
24 


BOOK    I 

waves,  and  wantoning  in  their  bath  with  vain  de- 
sire. Then  the  villain  raven  calls  full-voiced  for 
rain,  and  stalks  along  the  dry  sand  in  solitary  state. 
Nor  even  to  girls  who  ply  their  spinning  nightlong 
is  the  storm  unknown,  while  they  see  the  oil  sputter, 
and  spongy  mould  gather  on  the  blazing  lamp. 

^/fnd  even  thus  sunlight  after  rain  and  cloud- 
less clearness  mayest  thou  foresee  and  know  by  sure 
tokens.  For  then  neither  is  the  keen  edge  of  the  star- 
light dulled  to  view,  nor  does  the  moon  risejlushed 
by  her  brother  s  rays,  nor  are  thin  woolly  fleeces  borne 
across  the  sky ;  neither  do  kingfishers  beloved  of 
Thetis  spread  their  plumage  to  the  suns  warmth 
upon  the  shore,  nor  unclean  swine  remember  to  shake 
out  their  litter  and  toss  it  with  their  snout.  But  the 
mists  gather  lower  down  and  settle  on  the  flats,  and, 
constant  to  sunset,  the  night-owl  from  the  roof-top 
keeps  vainly  calling  through  the  dark.  ^4  loft  in  the 
liquid  sky  Nisus  is  in  sight  and  Scyllapays  the  debt 
of  that  purple  hair:  wheresoever  her  pinions  cleave 
the  thin  air  inflight,  lo,  hostile, fierce,  loud-swoop- 
ing down  the  wind,  Nisus  is  upon  her;  where  Nisus 
mounts  into  the  wind,  her  hurrying  pinions  cleave 
the  thin  air  in  flight.  Therewithal  rooks  repeat  three 

25 


GEORGICS 

or  four  times  a  clear  thin-throated  cry,  and  often 
where  they  sit  aloft,  happy  in  some  strange  unwont- 
ed delight,  chatter  together  among  the  leaves,  glad 
when  rains  are  over  to  look  to  their  little  brood  and 
darling  nests  once  again;  not,  to  my  thinking,  that 
their  instinct  is  divine  or  their  dower  of  fate  a  larger 
foresight  into  nature :  but  when  the  weather  veers 
about  and  the  saturated  air  shifts,  and  under  drip- 
ping skies  of  the  south  what  was  rare  but  now  con- 
denses and  what  was  dense  expands,  their  temper 
changes  countenance,  and  other  motions  stir  within 
their  breasts  than  stirred  while  the  clouds  drove  on 
before  the  wind;  hence  the  birds  make  such  chorus  in 
the  fields,  and  the  cattle  are  glad,  and  the  rooks  caw 
in  exultation. 

If  indeed  thou  wilt  regard  the  hastening  sun  and 
the  moons  ordered  sequences,  never  will  an  hour  of 
the  morrow  deceive  thee,  nor  wilt  thou  be  taken  in  the 
wiles  of  a  cloudless  night.  When  the  moon  first  gath- 
ers her  returning  fires,  if  she  clasp  a  dark  mist  in  her 
dim  crescent,  drenching  rain  will  be  in  store  for  hus- 
bandman and  seafarer;  but  if  a  maiden  flush  suffuse 
her  face,  wind  is  coming:  wind  always  flushes  the 
gold  of  the  moon :  while  if  at  her  fourth  rising  (for 
26 


BOOK    I 

that  is  surest  of  warrant)  she  travel  through  the  sky 
with  clear  sharp-cut  horns,  both  that  whole  day  and 
those  that  shall  dawn  after  it  till  the  month  be  done 
will  be  rainless  and  windless,  and  sailors  come  safe 
ashore  will  pay  their  vows  to  (jlaucus  and  Tanope 
and  <*jfl4elicertes  son  of  Ino. 

The  sun  likewise,  both  in  his  arising  and  when  he 
sinks  into  the  waves,  will  issue  signs;  most  sure  are 
the  signs  that  attend  the  sun,  yielded  with  morning 
or  at  the  ascending  of  the  stars.  When  at  day  spring 
he  is  dappled  with  spots  and  sunk  in  a  mist,  and  his 
orbed  centre  retires,  mistrust  thou  of  showers;  for  a 
gale  is  bearing  hard  from  seaward,  ill-ominous  for 
trees  and  crops  and  herds.  Either  when  towards  day- 
break spreading  shafts  struggle  out  between  thick 
clouds,  or  when  T)awn  springs  pale  from  Tithonus' 
saffron  bed,  alas!  weak  defence  will  the  vine-tendril 
be  then  to  the  mellow  cluster,  so  heavily  the  rough 
hail  dances  rattling  on  the  roofs.  This  likewise,  when 
he  has  run  his  race  and  is  now  sinking  from  the  sky, 
will  be  of  yet  more  service  to  remember ;  for  of  ten  we 
see  shifting  colours  fluctuate  on  his  face ;  green  pre- 
sages rain,  flame-colour  east  winds;  but  if  spots  be- 
gin to  mingle  with  fiery  red,  then  wilt  thou  see  all 

27 


GEORGICS 

a  single  riot  of  wind  and  storm-clouds;  not  on  such 
a  night  at  any  persuasion  would  I  voyage  through 
the  deep  or  part  moorings  from  land.  But  if  his  circle 
be  bright  alike  when  he  brings  the  day  and  buries 
the  day  he  brought,  vain  will  be  thy  terror  of  rain- 
clouds,  and  thou  shalt  discern  the  forests  waving  in 
a  clear  wind  from  the  north. 

Lastly,  what  burden  evenfall  carries,  whence  the 
wind  chases  clear  the  clouds,  what  the  dripping 
South  broods  over,  the  sun  will  signify  to  thee;  who 
shall  dare  to  call  the  sun  untrue?  He  likewise  often 
warns  of  the  imminence  of  dim  alarms,  of  treachery 
and  the  gathering  of  hidden  wars;  he  likewise  had 
pity  on  c]$ome  at  Caesar's  decease,  when  he  veiled  his 
shining  face  in  dim  rusty  red,  and  an  evil  age  dread- 
ed eternal  night.  Tet  at  that  season  earth  too  and  the 
plains  of  sea,  and  unclean  dogs  and  ominous  birds 
gave  presage.  How  often  did  we  see  Ktnajlooding 
the  Cyclopean  fields  with  the  torrent  bursting  from 
her  furnaces,  and  rolling  forth  balls  oj flame  and 
molten  rocks !  Cf-ermany  heard  the  clash  of  armour 
Jill  the  sky;  the^/flps  quaked  with  unwonted  shocks. 
(^Moreover  a  voice  was  heard  of  many  among  silent 
groves,  crying  aloud,  and  phantoms  pallid  in  won- 
28 


BOOK    I 

derful  wise  were  seen  when  night  was  dim ;  and  cat- 
tle spoke,  a  monstrous  thing:  rivers  stop  and  earth 
yawns;  and  ivory  sheds  tears  of  mourning  and 
bronzes  sweat  in  the  temples.  Eridanus,  king  of  riv- 
ers, whirled  whole  forests  away  in  the  wash  of  his 
raging  eddies,  and  swept  herds  and  stalls  together 
all  across  the  plains.  Neither  at  that  same  time  did 
boding  Jilaments  ever  cease  to  show  themselves  in 
disastrous  victims,  or  blood  to  ooze  from  wells,  and 
high  cities  to  echo  nightlong  with  howling  of  wolves. 
Never  elsewhere  did  more  lightnings  fall  from  clear 
skies,  or  ghastly  comets  so  often  blaze.  Therefore  a 
second  time  Thilippi  sawT^oman  lines  meet  in  shock 
of  equal  arms,  and  our  lords  forbade  not  that  Ema- 
thia  and  the  broad  plains  of  Haemus  should  twice 
be  fattened  with  our  blood.  Surely  a  time  too  shall 
come  when  in  those  borders  the  husbandman,  as  his 
crooked  plough  labours  the  soil,  will  find  spears  eaten 
away  with  scaling  rust,  or  strike  on  empty  helms 
with  his  heavy  mattock,  and  marvel  at  mighty  bones 
dug  up  from  their  tombs,  (pods  of  our  fathers,  of  our 
country,  and  thou  Romulus,  and  Vesta,  mother  who 
keepest  Tuscan  Tiber  and  the  ^oman  Talatine, for- 
bid not  at  least  that  this  our  prince  may  succour  a 


GEORGICS 

ruined  world!  Long  enough  already  has  our  life- 
blood  recompensed  Laomedon's  perjury  at  Troy; 
long  already  the  heavenly  palace,  O  Caesar,  grudges 
thee  to  us,  and  murmurs  that  thou  shouldst  care  for 
human  triumphs,  where  right  and  wrong  are  con- 
founded, where  all  these  wars  cover  the  world,  where 
wickedness  is  so  manifold  and  the  plough's  meed  of 
honour  is  gone ;  thejields  thicken  with  weeds,  for  the 
tillers  are  marched  away,  and  bent  sickles  are  forged 
into  the  stiff  swordblade:  here  the  Euphrates,  there 
Cjermany  heaves  with  war;  neighbouring  cities  rush 
into  arms  one  against  another  over  broken  laws:  the 
merciless  War-Cjod  rages  through  all  the  world: 
even  as  when  chariots  bursting  from  their  barriers 
quicken  lap  by  lap,  and,  vainly  tugging 
at  the  curb,  the  driver  is  swept  on 
by  his  horses,  and  the  car 
hearkens  not  to 
the  rein. 


GEORGICS.  BOOK  II. 


Husfar  of  tillage  of  the  folds  and  stars  in 
the  sky :  now  ofthee,  Bacchus,  will  I  sing, 
and  with  thee  no  less  of  woodland  copses 
and  the  slowly  waxing  olive  growth.  Hither,  lord 
of  the  winepress;  here  all  is  full  of  thy  bounties,  for 
thee  the  field  flowers,  heavy  with  tendrils  of  autumn, 
and  the  brimming  vintage  foams ;  come  hither,  lord 
of  the  winepress,  by  my  side  pluck  off  thy  buskins 
and  dye  thy  bared  ankles  in  the  new  wine. 

f\  x—v  _-, 

i  RST  of  all,  Nature  is  manifold  in  the  birth 
of  trees.  For  some  with  no  human  urging 
come  at  their  own  will  and  spread  wide 
by  plain  and  winding  river,  like  the  soft  osier  and 
tough  broom,  the  poplar,  and  pale  willoiv-beds  with 
their  silvery  leafage;  and  some  rise  from  seed  they 

3' 


GEORGICS 

drop,  like  the  towering  chestnuts,  and  Jove's  winter- 
oak,  lordliest  of  leafage  in  the  woodland,  and  those 
oaks  that  Qreece  holds  oracular.  Others,  like  the  elm 
and  cherry,  multiply  from  the  root  in  serried  under- 
growth; and  the  tiny  bay -tree  on  Tarnassus  springs 
beneath  her  mother  s  vast  shade.  These  ways  are  of 
Nature's  ancient  gift;  in  these  wear  their  green  all 
the  tribes  of  forest  and  underwood  and  sacred  grove. 

Others  there  are,  which  experience  has  found  out 
for  it  self  on  the  way.  One  tears  suckers  from  their 
mother  s  tender  stem  and  sets  them  in  trenches;  one 
plunges  in  the  soil  stocks  and  cross-cleft  billets  and 
sharpened  stakes  from  the  core:  and  some  forest  trees 
await  the  layer's  pinned  arch  and  slips  alive  in  their 
parent  earth:  others  need  a  root  in  nowise,  and  the 
pruner  doubts  not  to  commit  the  topmost  twigs  to 
earth's  keeping.  Nay,  and  from  the  dry  wood  of 
her  sawn  trunk,  wonderful  to  tell!  the  olive  pushes 
forth  a  root,  ^/fnd  often  we  see  the  boughs  of  one 
turn  lightly  into  another's,  and  the  changed  pear- 
tree  bear  her  grafted  apples,  and  plums  redden  on 
the  stony  cornel. 

Wherefore  come,  O  husbandmen,  learn  the  proper 
training  of  each  after  their  kinds,  and  soften  the  wild 


BOOK    II 

fruits  by  your  nurture,  nor  let  earth  lie  idle:  good 
it  is  to  plant  Ismarus  thick  with  vines  and  clothe 
mighty  Taburnus  in  olive.  ^And  be  thou  nigh,  to 
fulfil  at  my  side  the  task  begun,  (^Maecenas  our  hon- 
our, by  just  due  the  chief est  sharer  in  our  fame,  and 
give  thy  flying  sails  to  the  spacious  sea.  I  ask  not  to 
embrace  it  all  in  these  my  verses;  no,  though  I  had 
an  hundred  tongues  and  an  hundred  mouths,  and  my 
voice  were  iron:  come,  and  skirt  close  by  the  shore's 
edge.  Land  is  in  reach:  I  will  not  keep  thee  here  in 
mazes  and  long-drawn  preludes  of  fabulous  song. 
Tlants  that  rise  unbidden  into  the  borders  of  day 
are  unfruitful  indeed,  but  lusty  and  strong  of  growth, 
for  native  force  is  in  the  soil.  Tet  even  these,  if  one 
graft  them  or  transplant  them  into  trenched  mould, 
will  outgrow  their  savagery,  and  under  ceaseless 
training  will  soon  follow  thy  call  to  whatsoever  ways 
thou  wilt.  Even  the  barren  sucker  that  springs  from 
the  stem's  foot  will  do  likewise,  if  set  in  rank  over  a 
clean  plot ;  now  the  mother  s  deep-foliaged  boughs 
overshadow  it,  and  steal  the  produce  of  its  growth, 
and  stifle  itsfruitfulness.  Once  more,  the  tree  that 
rises  from  shed  seed  is  slow  in  coming,  and  will  yield 
shade  to  thy  children's  children  on  a  later  day;  ap- 

33 


GEORGICS 

pies  dwindle,  forgetting  their  former  savour,  and 
ragged  clusters  hang  for  birds  to  plunder  from  the 
vine. 

Truth  to  say,  on  all  must  labour  be  lavished,  and 
all  be  forced  into  the  furrow  and  tamed  at  a  great 
price.  But  olive-trees  answer  better  in  truncheons, 
vines  in  layers,  myrtles  ofTaphos  in  the  solid  wood; 
and  from  slips  are  born  the  hardwood  hazel  and  the 
mighty  ash,  and  the  shady  tree  of  Hercules'  gar- 
land, and  the  acorns  ofourlordofChaonia;  in  like 
wise  is  born  the  tall  palm  and  the  fir  that  shall  look 
on  the  perils  of  the  sea:  while  by  grafting  the  rough 
arbutus  yields  the  walnut,  and  barren  planes  carry 
sturdy  apple-boughs;  the  mountain-ash  silvers  with 
white  pear-blossom,  the  beech  with  chestnut-blooms, 
and  swine  crush  acorns  beneath  the  elm. 

Nor  is  there  one  single  way  of  grafting  and  of 
budding.  For  where  the  buds  push  out  from  amid 
the  bark  and  burst  their  delicate  sheaths,  there,  just 
on  the  knot,  a  narrow  slit  is  made;  in  it  they  imbed 
the  shoot  of  an  alien  tree,  and  teach  it  to  grow  into 
the  wet  sapwood.  Or  again,  smooth  trunks  are  cleft 
open  and  a  way  driven  deep  by  wedges  into  the  core, 
then  grafts  of  the  fruit-tree  let  in;  nor  long  time, 

34 


BOOK    II 

and  the  tree  climbs  sky  ward  in  breadth  of  prosperous 
boughs,  and  marvels  in  strange  leafage  and  fruits 
not  her  own. 

Furthermore,  not  single  in  kind  are  either  strong 
elms  or  willow  and  lotus,  or  cypresses  of  Ida;  nor 
in  a  single  likeness  is  born  the  fat  olive,  the  ball  and 
the  spindle-shaped,  and  thepausian  with  bitter  ber- 
ry, nor  apples  in  <^Alcinousf  orchards;  nor  does  the 
same  twig  bear  Crustumian  and  Syrian  pears  and 
the  heavy  wardens.  Not  the  same  is  the  vintage  that 
trails  from  trees  of  ours,  and  that  which  Lesbos  gath- 
ers from  the  branch  of  ^JMethymna :  there  are  Thas- 
ian  and  there  are  pale  ^l^lareotic  vines,  these  meet 
for  a  rich,  those  for  a  lighter  soil;  and  the  Tsithian 
more  serviceable  for  raisin-wine,  and  the  thin  La- 
gean  that  in  her  day  will  trip  the  feet  and  tie  the 
tongue ;  and  the  purple  and  the  earlier  grape ;  and 
in  what  verse  may  I  tell  ofthee,  O  ^Khaetian?  yet 
not  even  so  vie  thou  with  Falernian  vaults.  Like- 
wise there  are  ^/fminaean  vines,  theirs  the  soundest 
wine  of  all,  for  which  the  Tmolian  and  even  the 
royal  Thanaean  make  room;  and  the  lesser  ^/fr- 
gitis,  that  none  other  may  rival  whether  in  abundant 
flow  or  in  lasting  through  length  of  years.  Let  me 

35 


GEORGICS 

not  pass  thee  by,  O  <rRhpdian,  well-beloved  of  gods 
and  festal  boards,  and  Bumastus  with  thy  swelling 
clusters.  But  there  is  no  tale  of  the  manifold  kinds 
or  of  the  names  they  bear,  nor  truly  were  the  tale 
worth  reckoning  out;  whoso  will  know  it,  let  him 
choose  to  learn  likewise  how  many  grains  of  sand 
eddy  in  the  west  wind  on  the  plain  of  Libya,  or  to 
count,  when  the  violent  East  sweeps  down  upon  the 
ships,  how  many  waves  come  shoreward  across  Io- 
nian seas. 

JVbr  indeed  can  all  soils  bear  all  things.  By  riv- 
ersides willows  grow,  and  alders  in  thick  swamps, 
barren  mountain-ashes  on  rocky  hills;  on  the  sea- 
shore myrtle  thickets  flourish  best;  and  the  god  of 
the  vine  loves  open  slopes  as  yew  trees  do  the  freez- 
ing north.  Look,  too,  where  the  ends  of  the  earth 
obey  men's  tillage,  on  the  (^Arabian  dwellings  of 
the  East  and  the  painted  (jelonian ;  so  diverse  are 
the  native  lands  of  trees,  ^/flone  India  bears  black 
ebony,  alone  the  Sabaeans  have  their  rod  of  spice. 
Why  should  I  rehearse  to  thee  the  scented  wood  that 
drips  with  balm,  and  the  clusters  of  the  evergreen 
thorn?  why those ^A Ethiopian  forests  silvered  with  a 
soft  fleece,  or  how  Chinese  comb  off  leaves  their  deli- 
36 


BOOK    II 

cate  down?  or  the  groves  which  India  wears  Hearing 
Ocean  in  the  world's  utmost  recesses,  where  no  ar- 
row-shot can  ever  win  through  air  up  to  the  tree-top; 
and  truly  these  tribes  are  not  slack  when  they  handle 
the  quiver.  <*jfl4edia  bears  the  sour  juices  and  linger- 
ing savour  of  the  citron,  than  which  naught  is  more 
sovereign,  if  ever  a  cruel  step-mother  has  drugged 
the  cup  with  mingled  herbs  and  baleful  charms,  to 
arrive  for  succour  and  expel  the  black  poison  from  the 
limbs.  The  tree  is  large,  and  most  like  a  laurel  to 
view,andwere  a  laurel  but  for  the  difference  of  wide- 
wafted  fragrance;  the  leaves  drop  not  in  any  wind, 
thefiower  clings  close  as  may  be;  with  it  the  Medes 
anoint  their  faces  and  perfume  their  breath,  and  cure 
the  pantings  of  old  age. 

But  neither  those  ^^ledian  forests  where  earth  is 
richest,  nor  fair  (janges  and  Hermus  turbid  with 
gold,  may  vie  with  the  praise  of  Italy ;  not  Baftra 
nor  Ind9  or  all  Tanchaia  with  her  wealth  of  spicy 
sands.  This  land  of  ours  no  bulls  withjire-breathing 
nostrils  have  upturned  where  the  monstrous  dragon  s 
teeth  were  sown,  no  harvest  of  men  has  bristled  up 
with  helms  and  serried  spears ;  but  heavy  cornfields 
and  (^Lassie  juice  of  wine  Jill  it  all,  olives  and  shin- 

37 


GEORGICS 

ing  herds  hold  it  in  keeping.  Hence  the  war-horse 
issues  stately  on  the  plain;  hence  thy  white  flocks, 
Clitumnus,  and  the  lordly  victim  bull,  often  bathed 
in  thy  holy  stream,  lead  on  T^oman  triumphs  to  the 
gods'  temples.  Here  is  perpetual  spring  and  summer 
in  months  not  her  own ;  twice  the  cattle  breed,  twice 
the  apple  tree  yields  her  service.  But  the  raging  ti- 
gress is  not  there  or  the  fierce  lion-brood,  nor  does 
monkshood  deceive  the  wretched  gatherer,  nor  the 
scaly  serpent  dart  in  huge  coils  over  the  ground  or 
gather  so  long  a  train  of  spires.  ^Add  thereto  all  her 
illustrious  cities  and  the  labours  wrought  in  her,  all 
her  towns  piled  high  by  men's  hands  on  their  sheer 
rocks,  and  her  rivers  that  glide  beneath  immemorial 
walls.  Or  shall  I  tell  of  the  seas  that  wash  above  her 
and  below  ?  or  her  great  lakes,  thee,  lordly  Larius, 
and  thee,  Benacus,  heaving  with  billows  and  roar 
as  of  the  sea  ?  or  tell  of  her  harbours,  of  the  barriers 
set  upon  the  Lucrine  and  the  thunder  of  the  indig- 
nant sea  where  the  Julian  wave  echoes  afar  in  the 
tideway,  and  the  Tyrrhene  surge  pours  into  the  chan- 
nels of^Avernus?  She  it  is  likewise  who  unlocks 
from  her  veins  streams  of  silver  and  ore  of  brass,  and 
flows  with  abundant  gold:  she  who  rears  a  valiant 
38 


BOOK    II 

race  of  men,  the  <*JMarsian  and  the  Sabellian  stock, 
the  Ligurian  trained  in  hardship  and  the  Volscian 
spearmen ;  she  the  Ttecii,  the  Marii,  and  the  mighty 
Camilli,  the  seed  of  Scipio  stern  in  war,  and  thee9 
princely  Caesar,  who  even  now  victorious  in  ^Asia's 
utmost  borders  dost  keep  aloof  the  unwarlike  Indian 
from  the  towers  ofT^ome.  Hail,  mighty  mother  of 
harvests,  O  land  of  Saturn,  mighty  of  men  :for  thee 
I  tread  among  the  glories  and  arts  of  old,  and  dare 
to  unseal  these  holy  springs,  making  the  song  of^fs- 
cra  echo  through  the  ^oman  towns. 

Now,  for  a  space,  of  the  tempers  of  the  fields,  the 
strength  of  each,  and  the  colour,  and  the  native  pow- 
er of  fruit-bearing.  First,  stubborn  soils  and  ungra- 
cious hills, fields  of  lean  marl  and  pebbly  brushwood, 
welcome  the  long-lived  olive  groves  of  T  alias;  for 
sign  thereof,  in  this  same  region  the  oleaster  springs 
abundant,  and  strews  the  fields  with  her  wild  ber- 
ries. But  fat  land  glad  with  sweet  moisture,  and 
flats  thick  with  herbage  and  bounteous  in  richness, 
such  as  often  we  may  look  down  upon  in  the  cup  of 
a  mountain  valley  (for  hither  streams  trickle  from 
the  cliff-tops  and  draw  down  their  rich  mud),  and 
the  southern  upland  that  feeds  the  fern,  hateful  to 

39 


GEORGICS 

crooked  ploughs;  this  one  day  will  yield  thee  vines  ex- 
celling in  strength  andjlowing  with  wealth  of  wine, 
this  is  fertile  of  the  grape,  this  of  such  juice  as  we 
pour  in  offering  from  cups  of  gold,  when  the  sleek 
Etruscan  blows  his  ivory  jlute  by  the  altars  and  we 
offer  the  steaming  entrails  on  hollow  platters .  But  he 
whose  desire  is  rather  the  keeping  of  cattle  and  calves, 
or  the  breed  of  sheep  or  she-goats  that  strip  the  plan- 
tations, let  him  seek  the  lawns  and  distances  of  rich 
Tarentum,  or  such  a  plain  as  unhappy  ^lantua 
lost,  where  snow-white  swans  feed  in  the  weedy  riv- 
er: not  clear  springs  nor  grass  will  fail  the  flocks, 
and  how  much  soever  the  cattle  crop  through  the  long 
days,  as  much  the  chilly  dew  of  a  brief  night  will  re- 
store. Land  that  is  black  and  rich  under  the  share's 
pressure,  and  crumbling-soiled  (for  this  it  is  that  we 
imitate  by  ploughing)  is  always  the  best  for  corn : 
from  no  otherharvest floor shalt  thou  discern  the  slow 
oxen  bring  thy  wagons  oftener  home  :  or  where  the 
angry  ploughman  has  carted  the  forest-trees  away, 
and  levelled  the  copses  that  lay  idle  many  a  year,  and 
rooted  clean  out  the  birds9 ancient  homes;  they  spring 
sky  ward  from  their  abandoned  nests,  but  the  tangled 

field  gleams  behind  the  driven  share.  For  in  truth 
4o 


BOOK    II 

the  starved  gravel  of  the  hill  country  scarce  serves 
the  bees  with  dwarf  spurge  and  rosemary;  and  scal- 
ing tufa  and  chalk  tunnelled  by  black-scaled  snakes 
call  no  other  land  their  like  to  furnish  dainty  food 
and  yield  winding  retreats  for  serpents.  Such  land 
as  exhales  thin  mist  andjlitting  smoke,  and  drinks 
in  and  drains  away  the  wet  at  will,  such  as  is  ever- 
green in  clothing  of  native  grass,  and  mars  not  iron 
with  a  scurf  of  salt  rust,  this  will  garland  thine  elms 
with  laughing  vines,  this  is  fruitful  of  oil,  this  wilt 
thou  prove  in  tillage  gracious  to  thejlock  and  yield- 
ing under  the  crooked  share.  Such  is  the  tilth  of 
wealthy  Capua  and  the  coast  that  borders  the  Ve- 
suvian  ridge,  and  where  Clanius  encroaches  on  deso- 
late (^Acerrae. 

Now  I  will  tell  in  what  wise  thou  mayest  know 
each  from  each.  If  thou  must  know  whether  it  be 
loose  or  compact  beyond  the  wont  (since  the  one  is 
good  for  corn,  the  other  for  Bacchus;  for  the  corn- 
goddess  where  more  compact,  where  loosest  for  the 
wine-god)  first  shalt  thou  choose  a  spot  by  eye,  and 
bid  a  pit  be  sunk  deep  in  the  solid  ground,  and  again 
replace  in  it  all  the  soil,  and  level  the  earth  atop 
with  thy  feet.  If  earth  is  lacking,  loose  will  be  the 

41 


GEORGICS 

plot  and  fitter  for  flocks  and  gracious  vines;  but  if  it 
refuses  to  return  whence  it  came,  and  soil  is  over 
when  the  trenches  are  full,  that  land  is  solid;  look 
for  sticky  clods  and  lumpy  ridges,  and  furrow  the 
ground  with  thy  strongest  oxen.  Salt  land  more- 
over, and  sour  so-called — unfruitful  for  corn  it  is 
and  no  ploughing  softens  it,  nor  does  the  grape  keep 
her  race  nor  orchard-fruits  their  name  therein  — 
will  offer  such  proof  as  this :  pluck  thou  down  from 
the  smoky  rafters  close-plaited  wicker-baskets  and 
strainers  of  wine-presses;  herein  let  that  evil  soil  and 
sweet  spring-water  be  filled  and  trodden;  all  the 
water  will  be  squeezed  out,  yes,  and  large  drops 
trickle  through  the  wickerwork;  but  the  savour  will 
give  plain  token,  and  writhe  the  taster  s  face  with 
displeasure  at  its  bitterness.  ^Again,  what  land  is 
fat  we  learn  briefly  in  this  wise :  when  tossed  from 
hand  to  hand  it  never  crumbles,  but  grows  sticky  like 
pitch  on  the  fingers  in  the  handling.  Wet  ground 
nurtures  a  taller  herbage,  and  the  native  growth  is 
ranker  than  is  right.  ^Ah,  may  mine  be  not  thus 
over-fertile,  nor  show  itself  too  lusty  in  the  early 
blade!  Heavy  soil  betrays  itself  without  words  by 
weight,  light  likewise;  thine  eyes  will  at  first  glance 
42 


BOOK    II 

know  the  black,  and  the  several  colour  of  each.  But 
to  search  out  cruel  cold  is  difficult :  only  that  some- 
times pitch-pines  and  baleful  yews  are  there,  or  the 
dark  ivy  spreads  her  creepers. 

Which  things  regarded,  remember  long  time  first 
to  bake  thy  land  in  the  sun  and  cleave  the  broad  hill- 
sides with  thy  trenches,  first  to  lay  bare  the  upturned 
clods  to  the  North,  ere  thou  plant  in  the  glad  stock 
of  the  vine.  Fields  of  crumbling  soil  are  the  best;  for 
that  winds  and  icy  frosts  provide,  and  the  sturdy 
delver  that  shakes  and  stirs  the  acres.  But  men  who 
will  let  nothing  escape  their  vigilance  seek  out  be- 
forehand a  bed  where  the  seedling  tree  may  have 
her  early  training,  like  to  that  whither  thereafter  it 
shall  be  borne  and  set  in  the  row,  lest  a  sudden  change 
of  mother  estrange  the  plant.  Nay,  and  they  score  on 
the  bark  the  quarters  of  the  sky,  to  replace  in  each  as 
it  stood  the  face  whereon  it  bore  the  ardours  of  the 
South,  the  back  it  turned  towards  the  Tole;  so  strong 
is  the  habit  of  infancy. 

Whether  hill  or  flat  be  the  better  for  thy  vine-set- 
ting, inquire  beforehand.  If  thou  wilt  rule  thy  plots 
in  a  rich  plain,  plant  thickly;  thickly  set,  the  vine  is 
no  less  bounteous  in  bearing;  but  if  on  the  sloping  soil 

43 


GEORGICS 

of  knolls  or  on  couchant  hills,  give  the  ranks  larger 
room;  yet  no  less  let  every  alley  where  the  trees  are 
set  be  drawn  square  and  true  to  line :  as  often  in  pomp 
of  war,  when  a  legion  deploys  in  long  line  of  cohorts 
and  draws  up  from  column  on  the  open  plain,  and  the 
ranks  are  straightened  and  all  the  earth  surges  wide 
with  sparkle  of  brass,  nor  yet  do  they  close  in  grim 
conflict,  but  the  War-god  wanders  wavering  amid 
their  arms.  Let  equal  space  of  passage  be  measured 
every  way ;  not  merely  that  the  view  may  regale  a 
vacant  mind,  but  since  none  otherwise  will  earth 
supply  equal  strength  to  all,  nor  clear  space  be  left 
for  the  outstretching  boughs. 

Haply  too  thou  mayest  inquire  of  the  cuttings  for 
thy  trenches.  The  vine  I  would  dare  to  intrust  to 
ever  so  slender  a  furrow :  the  tree  is  sunk  deeper  and 
right  into  the  earth;  the  winter-oak  beyond  all,  who, 
as  high  as  her  top  scales  the  air  skyward,  strikes  her 
root  as  deep  to  hell :  therefore  not  storms  nor  blasts 
nor  rains  uproot  her;  she  abides  unstirred,  and  out- 
lives many  children's  children,  and  sees  roll  by  her 
many  generations  of  men ;  and  stretching  wide  to 
right  and  left  her  strong  boughs  and  arms,  uprears 
the  mass  of  her  own  enfolding  shade. 
44 


BOOK    II 

Neither  let  thy  vineyards  slope  to  the  setting  sun ; 
neither  plant  hazel  among  the  vines;  neither  cut  the 
uppermost  vine-switches,  or  tear  away  the  upper- 
most shoots  from  the  tree  (such  is  their  love  of  earth); 
neither  plant  among  them  stems  of  wild  olive :  for 
often  heedless  shepherds  drop  a  spark,  which,  hiding 
stealthily  at  first  under  the  resinous  bark,fastens  on 
the  core,  and,  darting  out  among  the  high  sprays, 
roars  loudly  skyward;  thence  pursues  its  way,  and 
reigns  victorious  over  bough  and  summit,  and  wraps 
all  the  woodland  inflame,  and,  thickening,  streams 
into  the  sky  in  a  cloud  of  pitch-black  gloom:  above 
all  if  a  storm  falls  prone  on  the  forest  and  the  wind 
fans  and  spreads  the  fire.  Where  this  is,  the  trees 
have  no  force  left  at  root,  nor  can  they  recover  when 
cut  away,  nor  grow  green  again  from  under  earth 
as  before;  the  barren  and  bitter-leaved  oleaster  only 
is  left. 

JVbr  let  any  counsellor  how  wise  soever  persuade 
thee  to  stir  the  earth  when  stiffened  under  the  breath 
of  the  North.  Then  winter  keeps  the  country  ice- 
bound, nor  though  the  seed  be  scattered  lets  the  fro- 
zen root  fasten  in  the  ground.  Best  is  the  setting  of 
vineyards  when  with  thefiush  of  spring  comes  that 

45 


GEORGICS 

snow-white  bird  abhorred  of  long  snakes,  or  hard  on 
the  first  frost  of  autumn,  when  the  fiery  horses  of  the 
sun  yet  touch  not  winter,  and  even  now  summer 
passes  away.  Spring  aids  woodland  leaf  and  forest 
tree ;  in  spring  earth  yearns  and  cries  for  the  life- 
giving  seed.  Then  the  lord  omnipotent  of  Sky  de- 
scends in  fruitful  showers  into  the  lap  of  his  laugh- 
ing consort,  and  mingling  with  her  mighty  body 
nourishes  all  her  fruits  in  might.  Then  pathless 
copses  ring  with  warbling  birds,  and  at  the  appoint- 
ed days  the  herds  renew  their  loves ;  the  bountiful 
land  breaks  into  birth,  and  the  fields  unbosom  to 
warm  breezes  of  the  West :  everywhere  delicate 
moisture  overflows,  and  the  grasses  dare  in  safety  to 
trust  themselves  to  spring  suns,  nor  does  the  vine- 
tendril  fear  gathering  gales  or  sleet  driven  down  the 
sky  by  the  blustering  North,  but  thrusts  forth  her 
buds  and  uncurls  all  her  leaves.  None  other  to  my 
thinking  were  the  days  that  shone  at  the  first  dawn 
of  the  rising  world,  none  other  the  course  they  kept; 
spring  was  then,  spring  reigned  on  the  broad  earth, 
and  the  east  wind  held  back  his  wintry  blasts,  when 
the  first-born  beasts  drank  the  daylight,  and  the  iron 

brood  of  men  reared  their  he  ad  on  the  firm  fields,  and 
46 


BOOK    II 

the  wild  creatures  were  let  loose  in  the  forests  and  the 
stars  in  heaven.  Neither  might  things  so  delicate  en- 
dure this  their  toil,  except  such  space  of  calm  passed 
between  the  cold  and  the  heat,  and  earth  were  cra- 
dled by  an  indulgent  sky. 

For  the  rest,  what  plantations  soever  thou  wilt 
set  over  thyjields,  scatter  fatting  dung,  and  hide  it 
heedfully  deep  in  earth;  dig  in  porous  stone  or  rough 
shells,  for  through  them  rains  will  trickle  and  thin 
vapour  ascend,  and  the  plants  take  courage;  and  be- 
fore now  have  some  been  found  who  would  load  them 
down  with  a  stone  or  the  weight  of  a  massy  tile,  this 
their  defence  against  streaming  rains,  this  when  the 
dogs  tar  brings  the  heat  and  the  fields  gape  in  cracks 
for  thirst. 

The  seedlings  set,  it  remains  again  and  again  to 
bank  the  earth  up  to  the  stalks,  and  swing  the  stiff 
hoe,  or  to  work  the  soil  beneath  the  ploughshare's 
pressure  and  wheel  thy  straining  oxen  between  the 
vineyard-rows:  therewithal  to  jit  together  light  reeds 
and  shafts  of  peeled  rods,  and  ashen  stakes  and  strong 
crutches,  in  whose  strength  they  may  learn  to  climb, 
and  scorn  the  winds,  and  climb  from  story  to  story 
high  up  the  elm. 

47 


GEORGICS 

zSfnd  while  the  earlier  youth  of  the  fresh  foliage 
grows  towards  maturity,  spare  their  tenderness;  and 
while  the  glad  shoot  springs  upward  and  mounts 
unchecked  into  the  blue,  not  yet  should  it  feel  the 
edge  ofthepruning-knife,  but  the  leaves  be  broken  off 
and  thinned  with  bentjingers.  Thereafter,  when  now 
they  have  shot  up  and  their  strong  stems  enringed 
the  elm,  then  strip  their  tresses,  then  lop  their  arms; 
till  then  they  shrink  under  the  steel;  then  at  last  keep 
imperious  rule  and  check  the  trailing  branches. 

Likewise  must  hurdles  be  woven  and  all  thejlock 
kept  away,  specially  while  the  leaf  is  tender  and  in- 
nocent of  toil ;  since  besides  rude  storms  and  the 
tyrant  sun,  buffaloes  from  the  thickets  and  restless 
roe-deer  make  it  their  play  ground,  sheep  and  hungry 
heifers  their  pasture.  Not  so  deadly  to  it  is  the  stiff- 
ening chill  of  hoar-frost,  or  the  whole  weight  of 
summer  brooding  on  the  parched  crags,  as  thejlocks 
with  the  poison  of  their  hard  teeth,  and  the  indented 
scar  left  on  the  bitten  stem.  For  none  other  crime  is 
the  goat  slain  to  Bacchus  on  all  our  altars  while  the 
antique  plays  advance  upon  the  stage,  since  Theseus' 
people  ordained  prizes  among  the  villages  and  clus- 
tering hamlets  of  their  tribe ,  and  joyfully  amid  their 
48 


BOOK    II 

cups  danced  on  oiled  wine-skins  in  the  soft  meadows. 

^/[nd  ^Ausonian  settlers  likewise,  the  race  sent 
forth  from  Troy,  disport  with  rude  verses  and  care- 
less jest,  and  put  on  frowning  masks  of  hollow  cork, 
and  call  on  thee,  O  Bacchus,  in  joyous  song,  and  to 
thee  hang  swinging  amulets  from  the  lofty  pine.  Thus 
all  their  vines  ripen  with  abundant  increase,  and 
teem  in  hollow  dells  and  deep  lawns  and  whereso- 
ever the  god  turns  his  goodly  head.  Therefore  meet- 
ly shall  we  recite  Bacchus'  due  honour  in  ancestral 
hymns,  and  bear  cakes  and  platters,  and  led  by  the 
horn  the  victim  goat  shall  stand  by  the  altar,  and 
the  fat  flesh  roast  on  spits  ofhazelwood. 

Likewise  is  there  that  other  labour  of  vine-dress- 
ing, which  nothing  is  ever  enough  to  satisfy;  for  year 
by  year  must  all  the  soil  thrice  and  again  be  loosened, 
and,  the  mattock  everlastingly  turned  to  break  the 
clod,  must  all  the  orchard  be  lightened  of  his  leaf. 
The  circling  toil  of  the  husbandman  returns  even  as 
the  year  rolls  back  on  itself  along  the  familiar  track, 
(^/fndnow  what  time  the  vineyard  sheds  her  linger- 
ing leaves  and  the  icy  North  scatters  the  tresses  of 
the  forest,  even  then  the  active  farmer  reaches  his 
care  into  the  coming  year,  and  presses  on  to  lop  the 

49 


GEORGICS 

bared  vine  and  trim  it  into  shape  with  the  crooked 
tooth  of  Saturn.  Be  first  to  dig  the  ground,  first  to 
wheel  away  and  burn  theprunings,  and  first  to  carry 
the  vine-poles  indoors;  be  last  to  gather  the  vintage. 
Twice  the  shade  thickens  on  thy  vines,  twice  weeds 
clothe  the  field  with  thick  entanglement ;  both  make 
hard  work;  praise  great  estates,  farm  a  little  one. 
^4nd  therewithal  the  rough  shoots  of  broom  are  cut 
in  the  woodland,  and  the  river-reed  on  the  banks, 
and  the  wild  osier-bed  gives  work  to  keep.  Now  the 
vines  are  tied,  now  the  shrubberies  lay  by  the  prun- 
ing-knife,  now  the  last  vine-dresser  sings  over  his 
finished  plots;  yet  must  the  soil  be  broken  and  the 
dust  stirred,  and  the  lord  of  the  sky  be  dreaded  for 
the  grapes  even  as  they  ripen. 

Contrariwise  olives  grow  all  untended;  they  look 
not  for  the  sickle-shaped  knife  or  the  stiff  hoe,  when 
once  they  have  struck  root  on  the  field  and  borne  the 
weather:  earth  herself,when  laid  open  by  the  crooked 
fang,  yields  sap  in  sufficience  and  heavy  crops  fol- 
lowing the  ploughshare:  so  shall  thou  nurture  the  fat 
olive  dear  to  Teace. 

Orchard-trees  likewise,  so  soon  as  they  feel  strength 
in  their  stem  and  possess  their  full  vigour,  climb  fast 
5° 


BOOK    II 

skyward  of  their  own  force  and  needing  no  aid  of 
ours :  no  less  withal  the  whole  woodland  grows  heavy 
with  increase,  and  the  untilled  haunts  of  birds  flush 
with  blood-red  berries;  the  cytisus  is  mown,  the  high 
forest  yields  store  of  firewood,  and  nightlong  the 
fires  are  fed  and  scatter  their  radiance;  and  do  men 
doubt  to  plant  and  lavish  their  care  ?  Winy  should  I 
keep  by  larger  trees  ?  the  osier  and  the  low  broom, 
even  they  yield  leafage  to  the  herd  or  shade  to  the 
herdsman,  and  hedge  the  crops  andpasture  the  honey- 
bee. <^Andfain  would  I  gaze  on  Cy  torus  billowy 
with  boxwood,  or  groves  of  Nary  cian  pine  ;fain  see 
fields  that  owe  no  debt  to  the  mattock  nor  to  any 
mortal  care.  'Even  fruitless  forests  on  a  Caucasian 
summit,  which  angry  east  winds  perpetually  shatter 
and  toss,  yield  produce  after  their  kind,  yield  profit 
of  timber, pines  for  ships  ycedar  and  cypress  for  dwell- 
ings; from  one  the  countryfolk  turn  spokes  for  wheels, 
from  one  fashion  drum-he  ads  for  wagons  and  curv- 
ing keels  of  ships;  withies  grow  thick  on  osiers,  leaves 
on  elms,  but  strong  spear-shafts  on  the  myrtle  and 
the  cornel  trusty  in  battle ;  the  Ituraean  yew  is  bent 
into  bows;  therewithal  smooth  lime  and  polished  box- 
wood take  shape  under  the  lathe  or  are  hollowed  out 

5' 


GEORGICS 

by  the  sharp  chisel ;  and  therewithal  the  light  alder, 
sent  down  the  Po,  swims  on  the  bubbling  wave ; 
and  therewithal  the  bees  hide  their  swarms  in  the 
hollow  bark  or  the  shell  of  a  mouldering  ilex.  What 
have  Bacchus'  gifts  bestowed  of  equalrenown?  Bac- 
chus gives  cause  for  blame  likewise;  he  it  was  who 
laid  the  mad  Centaurs  low  in  death,  cl$hpetus  and 
Tholus,  and  Hylaeus  as  he  aimed  that  great  jlagon 
at  the  Lapithae. 

(^/fh  too  fortunate  the  husbandmen,  did  they  know 
their  own  felicity !  on  whom  far  from  the  clash  of 
arms  Earth  their  most  just  mistress  lavishes  from  the 
soil  a  plenteous  sustenance.  Though  no  highproud- 
port  ailed  house  pours  fourth  the  vast  tide  of  morning 
visitants  that  Jill  her  halls;  though  they  feed  no  gaze 
on  doors  inlaid  with  lovely  tortoise-shell  or  raiment 
tricked  out  with  gold  or  bronzes  ofEphyre;  though 
the  fleece's  whiteness  is  not  stained  with  ^/Is  Syrian 
dye  nor  the  clear  olive-oil  spoiled  for  use  with  cinna- 
mon; but  careless  quiet  and  life  ignorant  of  disap- 
pointment,wealthy  in  manifold  riches ,but  the  peace 
of  broad  lands,  caverns  and  living  lakes,  but  cool 
pleasances  and  the  lowing  of  oxen  and  soft  slum- 
bers beneath  the  tree  fail  not  there ;  there  are  the 
52 


BOOK    II 

glades  and  covers  of  game,  and  youth  hardy  in  toil 
and  trained  to  simplicity,  divine  worship  and  rever- 
end age;  among  them  Justice  set  her  last  footprints 
as  she  passed  away  from  earth. 

<*_JI/[e  indeed Jirst  and  before  all  things  may  the 
sweet  (pluses,  whose  priest  7  am  and  whose  great 
love  had  smitten  me,  take  to  themselves  and  show 
me  the  pathways  of  the  sky,  the  stars,  and  the  di- 
verse eclipses  of  the  sun  and  the  moons  travails ; 
whence  is  the  earthquake;  by  what  force  the  seas 
swell  high  over  their  burst  barriers  and  sink  back 
into  themselves  again ;  why  winter  suns  so  hasten 
to  dip  in  Ocean,  or  what  hindrance  keeps  back  the 
lingering  nights.  But  if  I  may  not  so  attain  to  this 
side  of  nature  for  the  clog  of  chilly  blood  about  my 
heart,  may  the  country  and  the  streams  that  water 
the  valleys  content  me,  and  lost  to  fame  let  me  love 
stream  andwoodland.  ^Ah,where  the  plains  spread 
by  Spercheus,  and  Laconian  girls  revel  on  Taygetus ! 
ah,for  one  to  lay  me  in  Haemus'cool  dells  and  cover 
me  in  immeasurable  shade  of  boughs!  Happy  he  who 
hath  availed  to  know  the  causes  of  things,  and  hath 
laid  all  fears  and  immitigable  Fate  and  the  roar  of 
hungry  ^Acheron  under  his  feet;  yet  he  no  less  is 

53 


GEORGICS 

blessed,  who  knows  the  gods  of  the  country,  Tan  and 
oldSilvanus  and  the  Nymphs' sisterhood.  Himfasces 
of  the  people  or  purple  of  kings  sway  not,  not  mad- 
dening discord  among  treacherous  brethren,  nor  the 
Ttacian  swarming  down  from  the  leagued  'Dan- 
ube, not  the  T^oman  state  or  realms  destined  to  de- 
cay; nor  may  pity  of  the  poor  or  envy  of  the  rich  cost 
him  a  pang.  What  fruits  the  boughs,  what  the  gra- 
cious fields  bear  of  their  own  free  will,  these  he  gath- 
ers, and  sees  not  the  iron  of  justice  or  the  mad  forum 
and  the  archives  of  the  people.  Others  vex  blind  sea- 
ways with  their  oars,  or  rush  upon  the  sword,  pierce 
the  courts  and  chambers  of  kings ;  one  aims  destruc- 
tion at  the  city  and  her  wretched  homes,  that  he  may 
drink  from  gems  and  sleep  on  Tyrian  scarlet;  an- 
other heaps  up  wealth  and  broods  over  buried  gold; 
one  hangs  rapt  in  amaze  before  the  T^ostra ;  one  the 
applause  of  populace  and  senate  re-echoing  again 
over  the  theatre  carries  open-mouthed  away  '.joyful- 
ly they  steep  themselves  in  blood  of  their  brethren, 
and  exchange  for  exile  the  dear  thresholds  of  their 
homes,  and  seek  a  country  spread  under  an  alien 
sun.  The  husbandman  sunders  the  soil  with  curving 
plough  ;from  this  is  the  labour  of  his  year,  from  this 
54 


BOOK    II 

the  sustenance  of  his  native  land  and  his  little  grand- 
children, of  his  herds  of  oxen  and  his  faithful  bul- 
locks ;  and  unceasingly  the  year  lavishes  fruit  or 
young  of  the  flock  or  sheaf  of  the  corn-blade,  and 
loads  the  furrow  and  overflows  the  granary  with  in- 
crease. Winter  is  come;  the  Sicyonian  berry  is  crushed 
in  the  olive-presses,  the  swine  come  home  sleek  from 
their  acorns,  the  woodland  yields  herarbute-dusters, 
and  autumn  drops  his  manifold  fruitage ,  and  high 
up  the  mellow  vintage  ripens  on  the  sunny  rock. 
(^Meanwhile  sweet  children  cling  round  his  kisses, 
the  home  abides  in  sacred  purity,  the  kine  droop  their 
milky  udders,  and  on  the  shining  grass  fat  kids  wres- 
tle with  confronting  horns.  Himself  keeps  holiday, 
and  stretched  on  the  sward  where  the  fire  is  in  the 
midmost  and  the  company  wreathe  the  wine-bowl, 
calls  on  thee,  god  of  the  winepress,  in  libation,  and 
marks  an  elm  for  contests  of  the jly  ing  javelin  among 
the  keepers  of  the  flock,  or  they  strip  their  hardy  limbs 
for  the  rustic  wrestling-match.  This  life  the  ancient 
Sabines  kept  long  ago,  this  l^emus  and  his  brother; 
even  thus  Etruria  waxed  mighty,  ay,  and  <rf(ome 
grew  fairest  of  the  world  and  ringed  her  sevenfold 
fortresses  with  a  single  wall.  Tes,  before  the  sceptre 

55 


GEORGICS 

of  that  Cretan  king,  before  a  guilty  race  slew  oxen 

for  the  banquet,  this  life  golden  Saturn  led  on  earth; 

nor  yet  withal  had  they  heard  war-trumpets  blown, 

nor  yet  the  hard  anvil  clink  under  the  sword. 

But  we  have  crossed  a  boundless  breadth 

of  plain,  and  now  is  time  to 

loosen  the  necks  of 

our  steaming 

horses. 
# 


GEORGICS.  BOOK  III. 


HEE  also,  mighty  Tales,  and  thee  will  we 
sing,  O  renowned  shepherd  of^/fmphry- 
susy  and  you,  Lycaean  woods  and  rivers, 
else  that  might  have  held  idle  minds  fast  in 
song  is  staled  by  usage  now :  who  knows  not  cruel 
Eurystheus  or  accursed  Busir is*  altars  ?  to  whom  is 
untold  the  boy  Hylas,  and  Latona  in  Ttelos,  and 
Hippodame,  or  the  hero  of  the  ivory  shoulder,  the 
keen  horseman  Telops  ?  <^/f  path  must  be  adven- 
tured where  I  too  may  rise  from  earth  and  fly  tri- 
umphing on  the  lips  of  men.  First  will  I  lead  home 
with  me,  if  life  but  last,  the  Muses  from  their  Aonian 
hill;  first,  my  <^l4antua,  bring  thee  back  the  palms 
of  Idume,  and  build  a  shrine  of  marble  on  the  green 
meadow  by  the  waterside,  where  broad  zJMi 

57 


GEORGICS 

wanders  in  slow  windings,  and  borders  his  banks 
with  delicate  reed.  In  the  midst  shall  Caesar  be  my 
temple's  habitant :  to  him  will  I,  splendid  in  Tyrian 
scarlet,  drive  in  triumph  by  the  river  an  hundred 
chariots  four-fold  yoked;  for  me  all  (jreece,  leaving 
^Alpheus  and  the  groves  of^^Iolorchus,  shall  con- 
tend in  the  foot-race  or  with  the  raw  hide  boxing- 
glove.  (^Myself,  chapleted  with  stripped  leaves  of 
olive,  I  will  bear  offerings :  even  now  is  it  good  to 
lead  the  fitly  ordered  processions  to  the  shrines  and 
see  the  oxen  sacrificed,  or  the  stage  opening  as  the 
scenes  swing  round,  and  the  inwoven  Britons  rising 
on  the  crimson  curtains.  On  the  doors  I  will  fashion 
in  gold  and  solid  ivory  the  tribes  of  the  Changes  in 
battle  and  Quirinus' conquering  arms,  and  here  Nile 
surging  in  war  with  swollen  flood,  and  columns  ris- 
ing decked  with  the  bronze  of  ships;  and  beside  them, 
vanquished  ^/fsian  cities  and  Niphates  driven  in 
rout,  and  the  Tarthian  confident  inflight  and  in  his 
arrows  shot  backward,  and  the  double  trophy  torn 
in  fight  from  a  diverse  foe,  and  the  nations  twice 
triumphed  over  from  either  shore.  There  too  shall 
stand  breathing  images  in  Tarian  stone9  the  brood 
of^Assaracus  and  the  names  of  the  nation  of  Jove's 
58 


BOOK    III 

descent,  and  Tros  their  ancestor,  and  the  Cynthian 
founder  of  Troy :  and  wretched  Envy  shall  fear  the 
Furies  and  Cocytus'  relentless  river,  the  twisted  ser- 
pents of  Ixion,  the  awful  wheel  and  the  stone  that 
never  may  scale  the  steep.  ^Meanwhile  follow  we 
the  zvoodland  ways  and  fresh  lawns  of  the  wood- 
nymphs;  thine,  ^laecenas,  are  no  light  commands. 
Without  thee  my  spirit  never  springs  aloft ;  lo,  up ! 
break  off  dull  delay!  with  ringing  cries  Cithaeron 
summons,  and  Taygetus  with  his  hounds  and  Epi- 
daurus  trainer  of  steeds,  and  the  call  echoes  back  re- 
doubled from  the  applauding  woods.  Yet  soon  will 
I  gird  myself  to  tell  of  Caesar  s  fiery  battles,  and 
carry  his  name's  renown  through  as  many  years  as 
separate  Caesar  from  Tiihonus  primal  birth. 

HOSO  either  breeds  horses  for  the  won- 
dered prize  of  Olympian  palm,  or  strong 
bullocks  for  the  plough,  let  his  foremost 
choice  be  of  the  mothers  of  the  herd.  The  best  cow  is 
ugly-shapen;  her  he  ad  coarse,  her  neck  of  the  largest, 
with  dewlaps  hanging  down  from  chin  to  leg ;  and 
to  her  length  ofjlank  there  is  no  limit ;  large  of  limb 
and  of  foot,  and  with  shaggy  ears  under  inward- 
curving  horns.  JVbr  would  I  quarrel  with  one  marked 

59 


GEORGICS 

with  spots  of  white,  or  one  reluctant  to  the  yoke  and 
sometimes  hasty  with  her  horn,  and  almost  like  a  bull 
to  view,  and  tall  all  her  length,  with  a  tail  that 
sweeps  her  footprints  below  her  as  she  moves.  The 
age  for  just  marriage  and  travail  of  birth  ceases  be- 
fore the  tenth,  begins  after  the  fourth  year.  Beyond 
these,  she  is  neither  Jit  for  breeding  nor  strong  for 
the  plough;  between  them,  while  the  lusty  youth  of 
thy  flock  endures,  let  loose  the  males,  put  thy  herds 
early  to  breeding,  and  generation  by  generation  keep 
up  the  succession  of  thy  stock.  In  this  poor  mortal  life 
the  fairest  day  is  ever  the  first  to  fly ;  sickness  and 
melancholy  age  advance,  and  toil  and  hard  deaths 
pitilessness  sweep  us  away.  Ever  will  there  be  some 
stock  that  thou  wouldst  exchange:  then  ever  replace 
them,  and  that  thou  miss  not  the  lost,  be  beforehand 
in  selecting  the  young  of  the  herd  year  by  year. 

Even  in  like  wise  must  the  breed  of  horses  too  be 
chosen :  only  do  thou,  on  such  as  thou  purposest  to 
nurture  for  the  hope  of  the  race,  lavish  from  infancy 
onward  thy  foremost  pains.  From  the  first  a  well- 
bred  foal  in  the  fields  lifts  a  higher  pace  and  plants 
a  lighter  limb;  he  dares  to  advance  in  front  and  to 
try  the  threatening  torrent,  and  trust  the  unknown 
60 


BOOK    III 


bridge,  and  starts  not  at  vain  noises :  his  are  a  high 
crest  and  fine  head, a  short  belly  and  fleshy  back,  and 
a  breast  rippling  in  proud  slopes  of  muscle.  Bays 
and  greys  are  proper,  the  worst  coloured  are  white 
and  dun.  ^loreover,  if  haply  armour  clashes  near, 
he  may  not  stand  still,  he  pricks  his  ears  and  quivers 
in  all  his  limbs,  and  snorting,  rolls  from  his  nostrils 
a  volume  ofjiery  breath.  His  mane  is  thick,  and  when 
flung  up  falls  back  on  the  right  shoulder:  a  double 
ridge  runs  between  his  loins,  and  his  hoof  of  solid 
horn  prints  the  sod  with  heavy  clatter.  Such  was 
that  Cyllarus  who  obeyed  ^4  my  clean  Pollux  rein, 
and  the  twy -yoked  steeds  of \JMars,  chronicled  of 
Qrecian  poets,  and  mighty  ^Achilles'  team :  such 
too  fleet  Saturn's  self  when  he  shook  the  horse-mane 
free  over  his  neck  at  his  consort's  coming,  and  filled 
high  Telion  with  his  shrill  neighing  as  he  fled. 

Even  him,  when  failing  either  from  weight  of 
sickness  or  dulness  of  growing  years,  house  out  of 
sight  and  be  not  over-tender  with  the  faults  of  age. 
<^/fge  is  cold  to  love,  and  vainly  drags  on  the  un- 
grateful task,  and  when  the  battle  is  come,  as  it  were 
afire  blazing  without  strength  among  stubble,  he 
rages  to  no  avail.  Therefore  spirit  and  youth  thou 

61 


GEORGICS 

wilt  mark  beyond  all ;  then  his  other  merits,  his  par- 
ents' breeding ,  and  his  own  grief  at  defeat  and  ex- 
ultation in  victory.  Seest  thou  not  when  in  headlong 
contest  chariots  shoot  into  the  racecourse  and  pour 
streaming  from  the  barrier, wlnen  the  young  drivers9 
hopes  are  at  height,  and  throbbing  fear  drains  their 
riotous  hearts  ?  they  ply  the  curling  lash  and  stoop 
loose  over  the  rein;  the  glowing  axle  flies  fiercely  on; 
and  now  they  sink,  and  now  rising  high  they  seem  to 
bound  through  empty  air  and  mount  into  the  wind : 
no  slackening  nor  stay ;  the  sand  rises  in  a  yellow 
cloud,  and  they  are  wetted  by  the  foam  and  breath 
of  the  pursuers ;  so  great  is  desire  of  honour,  so  great 
their  care  for  victory.  First  Erichthonius  dared  to 
yoke  four  steeds  to  the  chariot  and  stand  triumphant 
above  the  racing  wheels;  the  Telethronian  Lapithae 
mounted  on  horseback  and  bequeathed  the  bridle  and 
the  ring,  and  taught  the  armed  rider  to  spurn  the  sod 
and  gather  his  feet  proudly  in  the  canter.  For  both 
the  task  is  alike,  alike  the  trainer  searches  out  one  in 
his  prime,  hot  of  spirit  and  fleet  of  pace,  how  often  so- 
ever another  have  driven  the  flying  foe  in  rout,  and 
boast  Epirus  or  valiant  ^\/Lycenae  for  his  country, 

and  trace  his  line  from  Neptune's  own  ancestry. 
62 


BOOK    III 

Which  things  regarded,  they  are  busier  as  the  time 
draws  near,  and  lavish  all  their  care  to  Jill  out  with 
firm  fat  him  whom  they  have  chosen  leader  and 
named  bridegroom  of  the  herd;  and  mow  flowering 
grass  and  supply  river-water  and  corn,  lest  he  fail 
of  mastery  in  the  delicious  toil,  and  ill-fed  fathers 
have  their  record  in  weakling  sons.  The  brood  mares 
moreover  they  purposely  starve  into  leanness,  and 
when  now  the  instinctive  pleasure  stirs  them  first  to 
union,  deny  them  the  boughs  and  fence  them  from 
the  fountain,  and  often  shake  them  with  galloping 
and  tire  them  in  the  sun,  while  the  threshing-noor 
groans  dully  under  the  corn-flail,  and  while  the 
empty  chaff  flutters  to  the  freshening  west  wind. 
This  they  do,  that  the  fruitful Jield  be  not  dulled  for 
use  and  the  sluggish  furrows  choked  by  over  abun- 
dant ease,  but  thirstily  swallow  the  seed  and  hide 
it  deeper  within. 

^Again  the  care  of  the  sires  begins  to  drop  and 
of  the  dams  to  follow  in  turn.  When  the  breeding 
mares  wander  at  the  months'  fulfilment,  let  no  one 
allow  them  to  draw  heavy  wagon-yokes,  nor  clear 
the  road  at  a  leap  and  dart  over  the  meadows  in  vio- 
lent speed  or  swim  in  rushing  rivers.  On  clear  lawns 

63 


GEORGICS 

they  feed  them  and  beside  brimming  streams,  where 
moss  grows  and  the  grass  is  greenest  on  the  bank,  by 
sheltering  caves  and  jutting  shadow  of  cliff's.  About 
the  groves  ofSilarus  and^/flburnus  evergreen  with 
ilex  there  swarms  a  fly  whose  Ttynan  name  is  asilus, 
oestrus  the  (jreeks  render  it  in  their  speech,  fierce, 
shrill  of  note,  that  scatters  whole  herds  distracted 
through  the  forest :  their  bellowings  madden  the 
shaken  air  and  the  woods  and  the  parched  Tanagers 
bank.  With  this  plague  Juno  of  old  wreaked  the  ter- 
rors of  her  wrath  and  counselled  woe  on  the  heifer- 
daughter  oflnachus :  this  likewise,  for  it  attacks  more 
fiercely  in  the  burning  noons,  thou  shall  ward  off 
from  the  breeding  flock,  and  pasture  thy  herds  when 
the  sun  is  newly  risen  or  the  stars  usher  in  the  night, 
z^/ffter  birth  all  the  care  passes  to  the  calves  in 
turn ;  and  immediately  they  brand  the  name  and 
mark  of  race  on  such  as  they  choose  to  rear  for  stock- 
breeding,  or  to  keep  sacred  for  the  altar,  or  to  cleave 
the  soil  and  upturn  the  broken  clods  of  the  ridgy 
meadow.  The  rest  of  the  herd  are  at  pasture  on  the 
grassy  green ;  such  as  thou  wilt  shape  to  pursuit  and 
profit  of  husbandry,  instruct  while  yet  ungrown, 

and  set  on  the  road  of  training  while  their  minds  are 
64 


BOOK    III 

light  in  youth  and  their  age  flexible,  ^/fnd first  tie 
round  their  shoulders  loose  rings  of  light  osier:  next, 
when  the  free  neck  is  grown  used  to  bondage,  match 
and  yoke  the  bullocks  in  pairs  by  the  collars,  and  make 
them  keep  step  each  with  each ;  and  now  let  empty 
carts  be  often  drawn  by  them  along  the  ground  and 
score  a  light  track  on  the  dust :  thereafter  may  the 
beechen  axle  creak  to  the  strain  of  a  weighty  load, 
and  the  brazen  shaft  pull  the  harnessed  wheels. 
(^I4eanwhilefor  their  unbroken  youth  thou  shalt  cut 
not  grass  alone,  nor  thin  willow-leaves  and  marsh 
sedge,  but  the  corn  sown  by  thine  hand;  nor  shall  the 
mother  cows  after  ancient  use  Jill  the  snowy  milk- 
ing-pails,  but  spend  all  their  udders  on  their  darling 
children. 

But  if  thy  desire  be  rather  towards  wars  and  fiery 
squadrons,  or  to  roll  charioted  by  Tisa's  ^Alphean 
streams  and  urge  thejlying  team  in  the  grove  of  Ju- 
piter, the  charger  s first  task  is  to  look  on  warriors  in 
pride  of  arms,  and  endure  the  bugle  note,  and  stand 
the  scream  of  the  dragging  wheel,  and  hear  the  rat- 
tle of  harness  in  the  stall;  then  more  and  more  to 
rejoice  in  a  kind  word  of  praise  from  the  trainer  and 
love  the  sound  when  his  neck  is  patted,  ^/fnd  ven- 

65 


GEORGICS 

luring  this  even  when  just  zveanedfrom  his  mother, 
again  in  turn  let  him  yield  his  mouth  to  the  soft  hal- 
ter, while  weak  and  yet  unsteady  and  yet  ignorant 
in  youth.  But  when  three  summers  are  past  and  the 
fourth  is  come,  presently  he  may  begin  to  pace  the 
ring  and  mark  time  with  clattering  footfall,  and 
bend  his  legs  in  alternating  curves,  and  take  the  look 
of  work;  then  let  him  challenge  the  gale  in  speed, 
and  flying  over  open  spaces,  as  though  free  from  the 
rein,  hardly  lay  his  foot-prints  on  the  soil's  surface : 
even  as,  when  the  gathered  North  wind  swoops 
down  from  Hyperborean  borders  and  scatters  the 
wintry  and  waterless  clouds  of  Scythia,  the  deep 
cornfields  and  floating  plains  shiver  in  light  gusts, 
and  the  forest  tops  utter  a  cry  and  the  long  waves 
race  to  the  beach ;  he  wings  his  way,  sweeping  field 
and  flood  in  his  level  flight.  Such  an  one  shall  either 
sweat  towards  Elean  goals  over  long  spaces  of  plain 
with  mouth  spurting  bloody  foam,  or  his  supple  neck 
better  bear  on  the  Belgic  car.  Then  at  last  when  now 
they  are  broken,  let  their  body  fill  out  with  coarse 
mash;  for  before  breaking  their  pride  will  swell  high, 
and  they  will  refuse  when  taken  in  hand  to  endure 
the  tough  lash  and  obey  the  cruel  curb. 

66 


BOOK    III 


But  no  diligence  more  confirms  their  strength  than 
to  keep  love  and  the  stings  of  blind  passion  aloof, 
whether  profit  of  oxen  or  of  horses  be  more  to  our 
mind.  ^And  therefore  they  banish  the  bull  far  into 
lonely  pasturage,  behind  a  mountain  barrier  and 
across  broad  streams,  or  keep  him  shut  indoors  by  the 
rich  farmyard;  for  the  female  gradually  wastes  his 
strength  and  consumes  him  in  gazing  and  allows 
him  not  to  remember  woodland  or  meadow  ;yes  and 
often  her  sweet  allurements  drive  her  proud  lovers 
to  let  their  horns  decide  the  rivalry.  On  broad  Sila 
grazes  the  shapely  heifer:  they  join  in  violent  battle 
and  alternate  the  frequent  wound;  dark  blood  bathes 
their  bodies  and  their  crashing  horns  strain  in  con- 
fronting pressure,  while  forest  and  far-stretching 
sky  echo  back.  JVbr  will  the  warriors  herd  together; 
but  the  conquered  retires,  and  keeps  exile  afar  in 
strange  regions,  making  many  a  moan  over  his  dis- 
grace and  the  haughty  conqueror's  blows  and  his 
love's  loss  unavenged;  and  gazing  on  the  stall  he 
quits  his  ancestral  realm.  Therefore  with  all  diligence 
he  trains  his  strength  and  lies  nightlong  on  an  un- 
strewn  couch  among  flinty  rocks,  feeding  on  prickly 
leaves  and  sharp  rushes ;  and  tries  himself,  and 

67 


GEORGICS 

learns  to  throw  his  rage  into  his  horns  by  butting  at 
a  tree  trunk,  and  buffets  the  winds  with  blows,  and 
scatters  the  sand  in  rehearsal  of  battle.  Thereafter, 
in  gathered  might  and  strength  renewed,  he  advan- 
ces his  standard  and  rushes  headlong  on  his  forgetful 
foe :  as  a  billow  beginning  to  whiten  in  mid  ocean 
gathers  a  lengthening  curve  from  the  deep,  and  as 
rolling  landward  it  thunders  over  the  rocks  and  falls 
in  very  mountain  mass,  while  the  wave  boils  up  ed- 
dying from  the  bottom  and  hurls  the  black  shingle 
high  up  the  beach. 

Tes  all  on  earth,  the  race  of  man  and  beast,  the 
tribes  of  the  sea,  cattle  and  coloured  birds  break  into 
fury  and  fire ;  in  all  love  is  the  same.  At  none  other 
season  does  the  lioness  forgetful  of  her  whelps  range 
fiercer  on  the  plains,  nor  the  clumsy  bear  deal  so  many 
a  death  and  such  widespread  devastation  through 
the  forests.  Then  the  wild  boar  is  fierce,  then  the  ti- 
gress most  fell :  ah,  ill  is  it  then  to  stray  in  the  soli- 
tary Libyan  land !  Seest  thou  not  the  shudder  that 
thrills  the  whole  body  of  the  horse,  if  only  the  famil- 
iar scent  is  wafted  on  the  gale?  and  now  neither  reins 
nor  cruel  whips  of  men,  not  cliffs  or  caverned  rocks 
delay  him,  nor  barring  rivers  that  unseat  and  whirl 

68 


BOOK    III 

away  mountains  with  their  wave.  The  great  Sabel- 
lian  boar  charges  with  whetted  tusks,  tramples  the 
earth  before  him  and  chafes  his  flanks  on  a  tree,  and 
on  this  side  and  that  hardens  his  shoulders  against 
wounds.  What  of  the  youth,  through  whose  frame 
unrelenting  love  darts  his  mastering  fire?  late  in  the 
blind  night  he  swims  the  straits  vexed  by  stormy 
gusts,  and  over  him  thunders  the  mighty  gate  of 
heaven,  and  the  seas  dash  echoing  on  the  crags ;  nor 
can  his  wretched  parents  call  him  back,  nor  the  maid-_ 
en  left  with  cruel  death  for  her  doom.  What  of  Bac- 
chus' dappled  lynxes,  and  the  fierce  tribe  of  wolves 
and  hounds?  what  of  the  battles  fought  by  unwar- 
like  deer?  Ttoubtless  before  all  the  madness  of  mares 
is  eminent,  and  Venus' very  self  inspired  them  on  the 
day  when  that  Totnian  chariot-team  champed  the 
limbs  of  (jlaucus  in  their  jaws.  ^Across  C^argarus 
and  across  the  roaring  ^/[scanius  love  leads  them ; 
they  scale  the  mountain  and  swim  the  river,  ^/fnd 
all  at  once  when  their  inward  longing  kindles  into 
flame  (in  spring  the  rather,  since  in  spring  their  vi- 
tal heat  returns),  they  all  wheel  and  stand  facing 
the  West  on  rocky  heights,  and  snuff  the  light  breezes, 
and  often  without  bodily  union,  wind-impregned, 

69 


GEORGICS 

wonderful  to  tell,  over  crag  and  cliff  and  deep-sunken 
vale  they  scatter  inflight  not  to  thy  springs,  O  East, 
nor  to  the  rising  of  the  sun,  but  towards  the  north 
and  northwest  winds,  or  whence  the  South  issues 
wrapped  in  gloom  and  saddens  heaven  with  his  chil- 
ly rains.  Then  that  clammy  fluid,  rightly  named  hip- 
pomanes  in  shepherds'  language,  oozes  from  their 
groin :  the  hippomanes  that  wicked  stepmothers  often 
gather,  and  mingle  with  herbs  and  baleful  spells. 

But  time  fleets  meanwhile, fleets  beyond  recovery, 
while  in  loving  enthralment  we  pass  on  and  on. 
Enough  now  of  cattle:  half  of  our  charge  is  left,  the 
herding  of  fleecy  flocks  and  rough  she-goats.  Here  is 
work ;  hence  look  for  praise,  sturdy  tillers  of  the  soil. 
Nor  am  I  of  doubtful  mind  how  hard  it  is  to  win  all 
this  in  words,  and  crown  things  so  slight  with  hon- 
our. But  in  fond  desire  I  am  rapt  over  ^Parnassus' 
lonely  steeps,  fain  to  pass  along  the  hill  where  the 
trace  of  no  earlier  wheel  winds  down  the  soft  slope 
to  Castaly. 

Now,  august  Tales,  now  must  sound  an  ampler 
tone.  In  the  beginning  I  ordain  that  sheep  crop  their 
fodder  in  the  soft  pens  while  leafy  summer  lingers 

on  his  return,  and  that  the  hard  ground  be  strewn 

70 


BOOK    III 

beneath  them  with  abundant  straw  and  trusses  of 
fern,  lest  chill  frost  hurt  the  tender  flock,  and  bring 
mange  or  rotting  feet.  Thence  I  pass  on  and  order  for 
the  goats  store  of  arbute-sprays  and  supply  of  fresh 
river-water,  and  wind-sheltered  pens  turned  to  the 
mid-day  and  facing  the  winter  sun,  even  when  chill 
^/fquarius  is  now  setting  showerful  upon  the  verge 
of  the  dying  year.  Them  too  must  we  guard  with  no 
lighter  carefulness :  nor  will  the  profit  be  less,  how 
great  a  price  soever  be  exchanged  for  Milesian  fleeces 
steeped  in  Tyrian  crimsons  :from  them  is  a  more  nu- 
merous breed,  from  them  wealth  of  abundant  milk; 
the  fuller  the  pails  have  foamed  from  their  drained 
udders,  the  richer  will  drip  the  stream  when  the  teats 
are  squeezed  anew,  ^/fnd  no  less  withal  men  shear 
the  beards  and  silvered  chins  of  the  Cinyphian  he- 
goat,  and  his  hairy  bristles,  for  service  of  the  camp 
and  sailcloth  for  hapless  seafarers.  Their  pasture  in- 
deed is  on  Lycaean  wood  and  hill-top,  rough  briars 
and  brushwood  clinging  to  the  steep ;  and  unherded 
they  return  heedfully  home,  leading  their  young,  and 
hardly  lift  their  heavy  udders  through  the  doorway. 
Therefore  with  all  diligence,  as  their  need  of  human 
care  is  the  less,  wilt  thou  guard  them  from  frost  and 

71 


GEORGICS 

snowy  winds,  and  cheerfully  deal  them  sustenance 
and  fodder  of  boughs,  and  keep  thine  hay-lofts  un- 
locked all  mid-winter.  But  indeed  when  western 
breezes  call,  and  glad  summer  sends  forth  either  flock 
into  lawn  and  mead,  with  the  glimmer  of  the  morn- 
ing star  let  us  haste  to  the  chilly  countryside  while 
morning  is  fresh  and  the  grass  frosty-white,  and  the 
dew  on  the  tender  herbage  sweetest  to  the  cattle. 
Thereafter,  when  the  fourth  hour  in  heaven  has  gath- 
ered thirst  and  the  note  of  the  shrill  tree-crickets 
pierces  the  copses,  by  wells  or  by  deep  pools  I  will  bid 
the  flocks  drink  the  wave  that  runs  in  troughs  of 
ilex;  but  in  the  noonday  heats  seek  some  shady  dell, 
where  Jove's  great  oak,  massy  and  old,  stretches  his 
giant  boughs,  or  where,  dark  with  many  an  ilex, 
broods  the  sacred  shadow  of  the  grove  :  then  once 
more  offer  them  the  thin  runlets  and  feed  them  once 
more  about  set  of  sun,  when  cool  evening  allays  the 
air  and  now  the  dewy  moonlight  revives  the  lawns, 
and  the  kingfisher  is  loud  on  the  shore  and  the  war- 
bler in  the  thickets. 

Why  pursue  to  thee  in  verse  the  shepherds  of  Libya, 
why  their  pastures  and  the  scattered  roofs  of  the  huts 

that  are  their  home?  Often  daylong  and  nightlong 

72 


BOOK    III 

and  the  whole  month  unbroken,  the  flock  goes  graz- 
ing for  lonely  leagues  without  a  dwelling;  so  wide 
stretches  the  plain.  The  African  herdsman  carries 
with  him  all  his  wealth,  his  house  and  household  god, 
his  weapons  and^fmyclaean  dog  and  Cretan  qui- 
ver ;  even  as  the  valiant  <rRvman  in  his  ancestral 
arms,  when  he  speeds  his  march  beneath  a  cruel  bur- 
den, and  the  column  halts  and  the  camp  is  pitched 
beside  the  surprised  foe. 

But  not  so  where  the  tribes  of  Scythia  border  the 
(^I4aeotic  wave  and  the  yellow  "Danube  rolls  thick 
with  sand,  or  where  outstretched  ^hpdope  runs  back 
under  the  mid  pole.  There  they  keep  their  herds  shut 
in  stall,  and  no  grass  shows  on  the  plain  or  leaf  on 
the  tree ;  but  earth  lies  featureless  in  mounded  snow 
and  deep  fields  of ice  that  rise  to  seven  fathoms,  un- 
der eternal  winter  and  eternal  breath  of  icy  north- 
west winds.  Nor  ever  does  the  sun  pierce  that  pallid 
gloom,  neither  when  he  rides  his  horses  up  the  steep 
of  sky,  nor  when  he  slakes  his  headlong  chariot  in 
Ocean  s  ruddy  floor.  Sudden  ice-flakes  gather  on  the 
running  stream,  and  even  now  the  water  bears  iron- 
tired  wheels  on  its  back,  and  gives  broad  wagons  the 
harbourage  it  gave  to  ships  before.  Brass  vessels  burst 

73 


GEORGICS 

continually,  and  clothes  stiffen  on  the  body,  and  li- 
quid wine  is  cut  with  hatchets;  whole  pools  turn  into 
solid  ice,  and  the  rough  icicle  congeals  on  the  shaggy 
beard.  (^Meanwhile  all  the  air  is  a  single  drift  of 
snow :  the  cattle  die,  the  broad-backed  oxen  stand  in 
a  frosty  shroud,  and  the  deer  huddle  in  troops,  be- 
numbed by  the  fresh  masses  that  their  antler  tips 
barely  outreach.  On  them  men  slip  not  the  hounds, 
hunt  them  not  with  any  nets  or  the  terror  of  crim- 
son-feathered toils;  but  while  they  vainly  push  a- 
gainst  the  breasting  hill,  slay  them  steel  in  hand  and 
cut  them  down  deep-braying,  and  with  merry  clam- 
our carry  them  home.  Themselves  in  caverns  deep 
sunken  under  earth  they  fleet  their  careless  leisure, 
and  roll  to  the  hearth  oak  from  the  wood-pile  and 
whole  elms  to  feed  the  fire.  Here  they  pass  the  night 
in  games,  and  with  beer  and  bitter  me aths  joyously 
counterfeit  draughts  of  the  vine.  Such  is  the  wild 
race  of  men  that  lies  under  the  seven  stars  of  the  ut- 
most North,  buffeted  by  T^hipaean  gales  and  wrap- 
ped in  the  tawny  fur  of  beasts. 

If  wool-groiving  be  thy  care,  first  keep  far  from 
brushwood,  from  bur  and  briar;  shun  rank  pastur- 
age ;  and  choose  from  the  beginning  a  white  and 
74 


BOOK    III 

soft-fleeced  flock.  The  ram  moreover,  be  he  else  sil- 
very as  may  be,  if  only  his  tongue  is  black  under  the 
moist  palate,  reject  thou,  or  he  will  darken  the  lambs' 
fleeces  with  dusky  spots,  and  choose  another  from 
the  flock  that  fills  the  meadow.  With  such  snowy 
wool  for  dower,  if  belief  be  deigned,  Tan  the  god 
of z^f  ready  ensnared  thee,  O  <^loon,  in  his  treach- 
ery, when  he  called  thee  into  the  depth  of  woodland 
and  thou  didst  not  scorn  his  call. 

But  whoso  sets  his  heart  on  milk,  let  him  with 
his  own  hand  carry  store  of  lucerne  and  lotus,  and 
salted  grass  to  the  pens :  so  they  desire  water  the 
more,  and  the  more  swell  their  udders,  and  give 
back  in  the  milk  an  undertaste  of  salt.  <*JWLany  re- 
move the  new-born  kids  from  their  mothers,  and  fix 
iron-spiked  muzzles  on  their  baby  mouths.  What 
they  milk  at  day  spring  or  in  the  daylight  hours,  they 
let  curdle  at  night ;  what  at  gathering  dusk  and 
with  the  setting  sun,  they  send  off  in  pails  at  dawn 
and  the  shepherd  trudges  to  the  town;  or  sprinkle 
it  sparingly  with  salt  and  store  it  up  for  winter. 

Neither  be  the  care  of  thy  dogs  the  last-deferred; 
but  feed  together  on  fattening  whey  the  puppies  of 
the  fleet  Spartan  and  the  keen  <^Lolossian :  never 

75 


GEORGICS 

in  their  guard  shall  thou  dread  thief  by  night  in  thy 
pens  or  inroad  of  wolves  or  restless  Iberians  behind 
thee ;  often  likewise  wilt  thou  urge  the  chase  of  the 
shy  wild  ass,  and  course  hare  or  fallow  deer  with 
thy  hounds,  often  rout  the  boar  startled  with  their 
bay  ing  from  his  woodland wallowing-pool,  and  high 
among  the  hills  drive  the  lordly  stag  with  shouts 
into  thy  nets. 

Learn  also  to  burn  scented  cedar  in  the  stalls,  and 
clear  out  noisome  scaled  snakes  with  fumes  of  gum. 
Often  under  sheds  long  unmoved  the  dangerous  vi- 
per lurks  and  shrinks  fearfully  out  of  the  daylight ; 
or  that  sore  plague  of  oxen,  wont  to  glide  under  the 
shadow  of  the  roof  and  dart  his  venom  at  the  flock, 
the  snake  nestles  in  the  ground.  Snatch  up  sticks  and 
stones,  O  shepherd,  and  as  he  rises  threatening  and 
puffs  out  his  hissing  throat,  strike  him  down!  and 
now  he  hides  his  head  deep  in  fearful  flight,  while 
his  coiling  body  and  the  last  folds  of  his  tail  un- 
wind, and  he  slowly  trails  the  utmost  curve  of  his 
rings.  Likewise  there  is  that  malign  serpent  of  Cal- 
abrian  lawns  that  rolls  along  with  uplifted  breast, 
scaly-backed  and  marked  with  large  spots  down  the 
length  of  his  belly;  who  while  streams  yet  gushfrom 
76 


BOOK    III 

their  fountain-heads,  and  while  earth  is  wet  with 
moist  spring  and  southern  rains,  lives  in  ponds  and 
housing  on  river  banks,  there  greedily  Jills  his  black 
gorge  with  fish  and  chattering  frogs  ;  after  the 
marsh  is  burnt  up  and  the  earth  cracks  in  the  blaz- 
ing sun9  he  darts  to  dry  land  and  rages  over  the 
fields,  rolling  his  fiery  eyes,  exasperate  in  thirst  and 
frantic  with  heat.  <*JI4ay  I  not  then  be  tempted  to 
take  soft  sleep  beneath  the  sky,  or  lie  along  the  grass 
on  the  forest  ridge,  when  fresh  from  his  cast  slough 
and  glittering  in  youth  he  glides  forth  stately  in  the 
sunlight,  leaving  his  young  or  his  eggs  at  home,  and 
his  mouth  fiickers  with  triple -forked  tongue. 

Likewise  will  I  instruct  thee  of  diseases  in  their 
sources  and  signs.  Trotting  mange  attacks  sheep 
when  icy  rains  and  the  hoarfrost  of  rough  midwin- 
ter sink  deep  in  their  live  flesh,  or  when,  after  shear- 
ing, the  sweat  clots  unwashed  and  tangled  briars 
cut  their  body.  Therefore  the  keepers  bathe  all  the 
flock  in  fresh  running  water,  and  the  ram  is  plunged 
in  the  pool  and  sent  floating  down  stream  with 
drenched  fleece:  or  they  smear  the  shorn  bodies  with 
bitter  olive-lees,  and  mingle  scum  of  silver  and  vir- 
gin sulphur,  pitch  of  Ida  and  wax  ointment,  and 

77 


GEORGICS 

squills  and  strong-smelling  hellebore  and  black  as- 
phalt. Tet  no  device  helps  the  trouble  more,  than 
when  one  can  cut  away  the  festering  surface  with 
steel;  the  sore  is  fed  into  life  by  concealment  while  the 
shepherd  refuses  to  lay  healing  hands  to  the  wound 
or  sits  idly  praying  to  his  gods  for  better  fortune. 
Nay,  and  when  raging  pains  run  deep  in  the  bleat- 
ing people  and  parching  fever  preys  on  their  limbs , 
it  is  found  of  service  to  allay  the  burning  heat  and 
strike  a  vein  where  it  throbs  with  blood  between  the 
hoofs:  as  is  the  wonted  manner  ofBisaltae,  or  of  the 
fierce  (jelonian  in  retreat  to  T^hpdope  or  Qetan  soli- 
tudes, whose  drink  is  milk  curdled  with  blood  of 
mares.  If  from  far  thou  seest  one  passing  oftener  into 
the  languid  shade,  or  more  listlessly  cropping  the 
tops  of  grass  and  following  behind  the  rest,  or  lying 
down  in  mid-pasture  of  the  meadow  and  retiring 
alone  before  deepening  night,  straightway  check  the 
evil  with  thy  knife,  ere  the  terrible  infection  spread 
through  the  heedless  multitude.  Not  so  heavy  comes 
the  rush  of  rain  when  a  squall  sweeps  over  the  sea, 
as  diseases  multiply  in  thejlock :  neither  do  ailments 
seize  them  singly,  but  whole  summer-pastures  at  a 
stroke,  thejlock  and  the  flock's  hope  together,  and 
78 


BOOK    III 

all  the  race,  root  and  branch;  as  any  may  know  who 
sees  even  now  so  long  afterward,  by  soaring  ^4lps 
and  None  hill-forts  and  fields  oflapydian  Timav- 
us,  the  deserted  pastoral  realm  and  far-stretching 
lawns  left  desolate. 

Here  once  the  air  sickened  and  a  woful  season 
came,  that  kindling  with  the  gathered  heat  of  au- 
tumn dealt  death  on  all  the  tribes  of  cattle  and  wild 
beasts,  and  poisoned  the  rotting  pools  and  putrid 
fodder.  Nor  was  the  march  of  death  straightfor- 
ward: but  when  fiery  thirst,  coursing  in  all  the  veins, 
had  shrunk  the  aching  limbs,  again  the  watery  hu- 
mours'flooded  out,  and  all  the  bones,  dissolving  under 
the  disease,  melted  into  them  piecemeal.  Often  amid 
divine  sacrifice  the  victim  standing  by  the  altar, 
while  the  snowy -ribboned  fillet  of  wool  was  being 
twined  about  it,  fell  dying  among  the  tardy  minis- 
trants.  Or  had  the  priestly  steel  slain  in  time,  no 
jlame  rises  from  those  filaments  when  laid  upon  the 
altar,  nor  can  the  soothsayer  return  counsel  or  reply : 
hardly  is  the  knife  at  the  throat  stained  by  the  blood 
or  the  sand's  surface  darkened  by  the  thin  gore.  Next, 
calves  lie  dying  all  over  the  luxuriant  grass,  and 
yield  up  their  sweet  life  by  the  full  manger:  next, 

79 


GEORGICS 

madness  comes  on  the  kindly  dogs,  and  a  hard  rat- 
tling cough  and  choking  swelling  of  the  throat  on 
the  sickened  swine.  Joyless  in  his  exercises  and  heed- 
less of  the  grass,  the  viffior  steed  pines,  and  turns 
away  from  the  fountain,  and  beats  the  earth  with 
impatient  foot :  his  ears  droop,  and  by  them  sweat 
comes  and  goes,  and  that  cold  and  betokening  death: 
his  skin  is  dry  and  hard  when  stroked,  and  resists  the 
touch.  Such  are  the  signs  that  for  the  first  days  fore- 
shadow the  end;  but  as  the  sickness  begins  to  ad- 
vance and  gather  violence,  then  indeed  their  eyes 
burn  and  their  breath  is  fetched  deep,  heavy  with 
broken  moans,  their  Jlanks  below  heave  with  long- 
drawn  sobs,  black  blood  oozes  from  their  nostrils, 
and  their  throat  is  blocked  by  their  rough  and  swol- 
len tongue.  It  helped  to  thrust  in  a  horn  and  pour 
down  it  juice  of  the  winepress ;  that  seemed  the  one 
restorative  for  the  dying :  in  short  space  the  very  cure 
was  fatal;  reviving,  they  maddened  in  fever,  and 
even  in  mortal  weakness  (the  gods  send  better  things 
to  the  righteous  and  that  bewilderment  on  our  foes !) 
they  tore  and  mangled  their  own  limbs  with  naked 
teeth.  ^Ind  lo,  smoking  under  the  iron  share  the 

bull  drops  down,  spurts  from  his  mouth  mingled 
80 


BOOK    III 

blood  and  foam,  and  heaves  a  last  groan :  sadly  the 
ploughman  advancing  unyokes  the  bullock  mourn- 
ing his  brother  s  death  and  leaves  the  plough  stuck 
fast  in  mid-furrow.  Not  shades  of  stately  groves, 
not  soft  meadows  can  stir  his  sense,  not  the  river 
that  curls  brighter  than  amber  over  his  rocks  to  seek 
the  plain ;  but  his  deepjlanks  relax,  his  dull  eyes  are 
weighed  down  in  stupor,  and  his  neck  sinks  droop- 
ing heavily  to  earth.  What  avails  his  toil  or  his  ser- 
vices ?  What  that  his  ploughshare  has  upturned  the 
ponderous  clods?  ^Andyet  no  Classic  bounty  of 
the  vine,  no  crowding  banquets  have  done  harm  to 
these ;  they  feed  on  leaves  and  simple  pasture  of 
grass,  their  cups  are  clear  springs  and  racing  rivers, 
nor  does  care  break  their  healthful  sleep.  Then  as 
never  before  they  say  that  in  that  countryside  oxen 
were  to  seek  for  Juno's  rites,  and  chariots  were 
drawn  by  ill-matched  buffaloes  to  the  high  votive 
shrines.  Therefore  they  wearily  furrow  earth  with 
mattocks,  and  cover  in  the  seed-corn  with  their  own 
nails,  and  with  straining  necks  drag  their  creaking 
wagons  over  the  hill  heights.  No  more  does  the  wolf 
prowl  in  ambush  round  the  sheepfolds  nor  pace 
nightlong  nigh  thejlocks;  a  fiercer  care  makes  him 

81 


GEORGICS 

tame.  Shy  fallow  deer  and  timid  stags  now  stray 
among  the  dogs  and  about  the  houses.  Nay,  the 
brood  of  the  infinite  sea  and  all  the  tribe  of  swim- 
ming creatures  lie  on  the  verge  of  the  strand  like 
shipwrecked  corpses  in  the  wash  of  the  wave,  and 
seals  take  unwonted  refuge  in  the  rivers:  an  din  the 
vain  defence  of  her  winding  recesses  the  viper  per- 
ishes, and  the  snake  with  scales  stiffened  in  dismay : 
to  the  very  birds  the  air  is  cruel,  and  they  drop,  leav- 
ing their  life  high  under  the  clouds.  Furthermore, 
no  change  of  food  is  now  aught  of  avail,  and  arts 
are  sought  but  for  harm ;  Chiron  son  ofThillyra  and 
^Amythaonian  (^Melampus  give  up  their  mastery . 
Loosed  into  daylight  from  Stygian  gloom  wan  Tis- 
iphone  maddens,  and  drives  plague  and  panic  before 
her,  and  day  by  day  towers  insatiate  with  higher  up- 
lifted head;  river  and  parched  bank  and  couchant 
hills  echo  with  incessant  lowings  and  bleating  of 
flocks.  ^And  now  she  deals  destruction  in  battal- 
ions, and  heaps  the  very  folds  with  carcases  rotting 
in  foul  decay,  till  men  learn  to  cover  them  with 
earth  and  hide  them  out  of  sight  in  pits.  For  neither 
might  the  hides  be  used,  nor  can  any  one  dissolve  or 
consume  thejlesh  in  water  or  flame :  not  even  can 
82 


BOOK    III 

they  shear  the  fleeces,  eaten  through  by  corruption  of 

the  pestilence,  nor  set  hand  to  the  rotten  web:  nay, 

even  if  any  had  braved  so  abhorred  a  garment, 

burning  pustules  and  foul-smelling  sweat 

overran  his  limbs,  and  in  no  long 

space  of  delay  thereafter  the 

fatal Jire  devoured 

his  infected 

frame. 


GEORGICS.  BOOK  IV 


EXT  will  I  advance  to  heaven-born  hon- 
ey, the  gift  of  air  (let  this  likewise, 
(^Maecenas,  share  thy  regard),  and 
tell  thee  of  the  wondrous  show  of  a  tiny  state,  of 
high-hearted  princes  and  a  whole  nation's  ordered 
works  and  ways,  tribes  and  battles.  Slight  is  the  field 
of  labour;  but  not  slight  the  glory,  if  but  thwarting 
deities  allow,  and  ^/fpoll.o  listen  to  prayer. 

"IRST  of  all  a  home  must  be  sought  for 
bees,  and  a  post  where  neither  winds 
may  have  entry — for  winds  hinder  them 
carrying  their  forage  home — nor  sheep  and  butting 
kids  tread  down  the  flowers,  or  the  straying  heifer 
brush  the  dew  from  the  meadow  and  trample  the 
springing  grass.  Likewise  let  the  bright  scale-backed 
84 


BOOK    IV 

lizard  be  far  from  their  rich  folds,  and  the  birds  that 
come  with  the  bee-eater,  and  the  swallow,  her  breast 
marked  with  those  blood-stained  hands  :  for  they 
spread  universal  havoc,  and  carry  off  the  bees  on 
the  wing,  dainty  morsels  for  their  fierce  nestlings. 
But  let  clear  springs  be  nigh,  and  ponds  green  with 
moss,  and  a  thread  of  rill  fleeting  through  the  grass; 
and  let  a  palm  or  tall  wild-olive  overshadow  the 
entrance,  that  when  the  new  kings  shall  lead  forth 
their  earliest  swarms  in  the  sweet  springtime,  and 
the  young  brood  disport  unprisoned  from  the  comb, 
the  bordering  bank  may  woo  them  to  cool  retreat, 
and  the  tree  meet  and  stay  them  in  her  leafy  shelter. 
^4mid  the  water,  whether  it  stagnate  or  run,  cast 
large  stones  and  willow-boughs  crosswise,  that  they 
may  have  many  a  bridge  to  stand  on  and  spread  their 
wings  to  the  summer  sun,  if  haply  a  shower  overtake 
them,  or  a  gust  of  wind  plunge  them  in  the  watery 
realm.  All  round  green  casia  and  far-fragrant  wild 
thyme  and  wealth  of  heavy-scented  savory  should 
bloom,  and  violet  beds  drink  the  channelled  spring. 
Let  thy  hives,  moreover,  whether  they  be  stitched  of 
hollow  bark  or  woven  from  pliant  osier,  have  narrow 
doorways  ;for  the  honey  freezes  in  winter  cold,  and 

85 


GEORGICS 

again  melts  and  wastes  in  the  heat.  Extreme  of  either 
the  bees  dread  alike;  nor  in  vain  do  they  eagerly  plas- 
ter with  wax  the  draughty  chinks  in  the  roof  and 
stop  up  the  rims  with  pollen  of  flowers,  and  for  this 
very  service  gather  and  store  their  gum,  stickier  than 
bird-lime  or  pitch  from  ^Phrygian  Ida.  Often  like- 
wise, if  the  tale  is  true,  they  keep  house  in  recesses 
scooped  out  underground,  or  are  found  deep  in  hol- 
low sandstone  or  the  cavern  of  a  mouldering  tree. 
Yet  do  thou  smear  smooth  clay  warmly  round  about 
their  creviced  chambers,  and  spread  on  the  top  a 
thin  coat  of  leaves.  Neither  suffer  the  yew  too  near 
their  house,  neither  burn  crab-shells  to  redness  in 
the  fire,  neither  trust  them  where  a  marsh  is  deep, 
or  by  a  strong  smell  of  mire,  or  where  encircling 
rocks  echo  to  a  stroke  and  fling  back  the  phantom  of 
a  call. 

For  the  rest,  when  the  golden  sun  has  driven  win- 
ter routed  underground  and  flung  wide  the  sky  in 
summer  light,  forthwith  they  range  over  lawn  and 
wood,  and  harvest  the  shining  blossoms  and  sip 
lightly  of  the  streams ;  then  glad  with  some  strange 
delight,  they  nurture  their  brood  in  the  nest,  then 
deftly  forge  the  fresh  wax  and  mould  the  clammy 

86 


BOOK    IV 

honey.  Then,  as  looking  up  thou  seest  their  armies 
swarming  skyward  from  the  hives  and  floating 
through  the  clear  summer  air,  andwonderest  at  their 
dim  cloud  trailing  in  the  wind,  mark !  ever  they  steer 
for  sweet  water  and  leafy  shelter.  Here  sprinkle 
the  odours  ordained,  crushed  balm  and  lowly  tufts 
of  honey  wort,  and  make  a  tinkling  roundabout  and 
clash  the  cymbals  of  our  Lady ;  themselves  will  set- 
tle on  the  scented  seat,  themselves  in  their  wonted 
way  creep  into  the  inmost  covert  of  their  nest. 

But  further,  if  they  are  gone  forth  to  battle, — 
for  often  high  swelling  discord  arises  between  two 
kings,  and  at  once  and  afar  thou  mayest  foreknow 
the  raging  of  the  multitude  and  the  hearts  beating 
fast  for  war;  for  a  note  as  of  the  hoarse  brass  of  our 
zJI4ars  chides  the  lingerers  and  a  cry  is  heard  that 
mimics  broken  trumpet-blasts, — then  they  muster 
hurriedly  together  with  vibrating  wings,  and  whet 
their  stings  on  their  beaks  and  brace  their  arms,  and 
crowd  in  mingled  mass  round  their  king  and  close 
up  to  the  royal  tent,  and  with  loud  cries  challenge 
the  enemy.  So  when  they  find  the  spring  sky  rainless 
and  their  field  open,  they  sally  from  the  gates ;  high 
in  air  the  armies  clash  and  the  din  swells ;  gather- 

87 


GEORGICS 

ing  they  cluster  in  a  great  ball  and  come  tumbling 
down,  thick  as  hailstones  through  the  air  or  the  rain 
of  acorns  from  the  shaken  ilex.  The  monarchs  move 
splendid-winged  amid  the  ranks,  and  mighty  pas- 
sions stir  in  their  tiny  breasts,  stubborn  to  the  last 
not  to  retreat,  till  weight  of  the  conqueror  forces 
these  or  those  to  turn  backward  injlying  rout.  These 
stormy  passions  and  these  mighty  conflicts  are  lulled 
to  rest  by  a  handful  of  scattered  dust. 

But  when  thou  hast  recalled  both  leaders  from 
the  battle-field,  do  to  death  him  who  seems  inferior, 
that  he  be  not  a  waste  and  harm;  let  the  better  reign 
in  a  clear  court.  One  will  be  ablaze  with  spots  of 
embossed  gold;  for  there  are  two  kinds,  this  the  bet- 
ter, fair  of  feature  and  splendid  infiashing  scales ; 
the  other,  rough-coated  and  sluggish,  crawls  meanly 
with  his  breadth  of  belly,  ^/fs  the  two  kings  in  as- 
pe£t,  so  are  their  subjects  shapen  ;for  some  are  rough 
and  dirty,  even  as  a  traveller  when  he  issues  from 
deep  dust  and  spits  from  his  mouth  the  gritty  soil, 
all  athirst ;  others  shine  and  sparkle  in  splendour, 
and  their  bodies  blaze  with  evenly-marked  drops  of 
gold.  These  are  the  choicer  breed;  from  their  combs 
at  the  ordained  season  of  the  skies  thou  shall  squeeze 

88 


BOOK    IV 

sweet  honey,  and  yet  less  sweet  than  crystal-clear, 
to  soften  the  harsh  taste  of  wine. 

But  when  the  swarms  fly  aimlessly  at  play  in  the 
sky,  and  despise  their  combs  and  leave  their  house  to 
grow  cold,  thou  shalt  stop  their  light-minded  and 
idle  game.  JVor  is  it  much  work  to  stop ;  tear  off  the 
wings  of  the  kings ;  while  they  linger,  not  a  bee  will 
dare  to  set  out  on  their  aery  way  or  move  standard 
from  the  camp.  Let  garden  plots  woo  them  with 
fragrance  of  their  yellow  flowers,  and  the  watch- 
man of  thieves  and  birds,  Hellespontic  Triapus, 
keep  them  in  guard  with  his  hook  of  willow.  Him- 
self should  the  keeper  of  such  plant  about  their  houses 
broad  belts  of  thyme  and  pines  brought  from  the  hill 
heights ;  himself  wear  his  hand  hard  with  work, 
himself  bed  the  soil  with  fruitful  shoots  and  water 
them  with  kindly  showers. 

<±/£nd  truly,  but  that  already  Hearing  my  task's 
final  limit  I  furl  my  sails  and  hasten  to  turn  my 
prow  to  land,  perchance  I  might  also  sing  of  the  care 
and  keeping  that  deck  the  rich  garden  mould,  and 
of  the  Taestan  rosebeds  with  their  double  blossom- 
ing, and  how  the  endive  rejoices  in  drinking  the  rill 

and  the  banks  are  green  with  parsley,  and  how  the 

89 


GEORGICS 

curved  gourd  swells  bellying  along  the  grass,  not 
had  kept  silence  of  the  late-cowering  narcissus  or 
the  shoot  of  the  curled  acanthus ,  and  pale  ivy-sprays 
and  the  myrtles  that  love  the  shore.  For  I  remember 
how,  beneath  the  towered  fortress  ofOebalia,  where 
dark  (jalaesus  moistens  his  golden  cornfields,  I  saw 
an  old  man  of  Corycus,  who  owned  some  few  acres 
of  waste  land,  afield  neither  rich  for  grazing  nor 
favorable  to  thejlock  nor  apt  for  the  vineyard;  yet 
he,  setting  thinly  sown  garden-stuff  among  the 
brushwood,  with  borders  of  white  lilies  and  vervain 
and  the  seeded  poppy,  equalled  in  his  content  the 
wealth  of  kings;  and,  returning  home  when  night 
was  late,  would  heap  his  table  with  unbought  dain- 
ties. The  first  roses  of  spring,  the  first  apples  of  au- 
tumn he  would  gather;  and  when  even  yet  the  frost 
of  bitter  winter  cleft  the  rocks  and  laid  an  icy  curb 
on  the  running  waters,  already  he  plucked  the  soft- 
tressed  hyacinth,  chiding  the  late-lingering  summer 
and  the  west  wind's  delay.  So  likewise  was  he  the 
first  for  whom  the  bees'  brood  overflowed  in  swarm- 
ing multitudes,  and  the  frothing  honey  drained  from 
the  squeezed  combs ;  lime  trees  were  his,  and  wealth 
of  pine ;  and  as  many  apples  as  had  arrayed  his  or- 
9o 


BOOK    IV 

chard-tree  in  the  fresh  blossom,  so  many  it  carried 
ripe  at  autumn.  He  too  transplanted  into  rows  full- 
grown  elms  and  the  hard-wood  pear,  and  the  black- 
thorn with  sloes  already  upon  it,  and  the  plane  al- 
ready yielding  shade  to  the  drinker.  But  this  for  my 
part,  debarred  by  jealous  limits,  I  pass  by  and  leave 
to  be  told  by  others  after  me. 

Now  come,  I  will  set  forth  the  gifts  wherewith 
Jove  himself  has  dowered  bees  at  birth,  their  wa- 
ges when,  following  the  musical  cries  and  tinkling 
brasses  of  the  Curetes,  they  fed  the  king  of  heaven 
in  that  low  cave  of  Crete.  ^Alone  they  have  com- 
munity of  children  and  shelter  of  a  confederate  city, 
and  spend  their  life  under  majesty  of  law;  alone  they 
know  a  native  country  and  established  gods  of  the 
household,  and,  mindful  of  winter  s  coming,  they 
ply  their  summer  task  and  lay  up  their  gatherings 
in  a  common  store.  For  some  are  diligent  to  provide 
food,  and  labour  in  the  fields,  by  ordinance  of  the 
league ;  others  within  their  fortified  houses  lay  the 
combs' first  foundations  with  tear  of  narcissus  and 
sticky  resin  of  bark,  and  hang  thereon  the  clinging 
waxen  walls:  some  guide  forth  the  grown  brood, 
their  nation's  hope;  others  press  down  the  pure  virgin 

91 


GEORGICS 

honey  and  brim  the  cells  with  liquid  sweets.  To  cer- 
tain of  them  falls  the  lot  of  guard  at  the  gates,  and 
in  turn  they  keep  watch  on  showers  and  cloudy  skies, 
or  take  the  loads  of  the  incomers,  or  in  ranked  array 
keep  the  drones,  that  idle  gang,  aloof  from  the  folds: 
the  work  is  all  aswarm,  and  fragrance  breathes  from 
the  thyme-scented  honey,  ^/fnd  even  as  when  the 
Cyclopean  forgers  of  the  thunder  hurry  on  the  duc- 
tile ore,  some  make  the  wind  come  and  go  in  bellows 
of  bull-hide,  some  dip  the  hissing  brass  in  the  trough; 
Etna  groans  under  their  anvils'  pressure,  as  alter- 
nating they  lift  their  arms  mightily  in  time,  and 
turn  the  iron  about  in  the  grip  of  their  tongs :  even 
so,  if  small  things  may  be  compared  with  great,  are 
our^Attic  bees  urge  don  each  in  her  proper  duty  by 
inborn  love  of  possession.  The  aged  have  the  town 
in  charge,  and  the  walling  of  the  combs  and  the 
shaping  of  the  curious  chambers;  but  the  younger 
return  weary  when  night  grows  late,  their  thighs 
laden  with  thyme,  and  pasture  all  abroad  on  arbu- 
tus and  grey  willow,  on  casia  and  the  crimsoned 
crocus,  and  the  rich  lime-blossom  and  the  rust-red 
hyacinth.  For  all  is  one  rest  from  toil,  work-time  for 

all  is  one.  With  morning  they  stream  out  of  their 
92 


BOOK    IV 

gates,  with  never  a  lingerer ;  alike  again,  when 
evening  warns  them  at  last  to  quit  their  meadow 
pasture,  then  they  seek  their  home,  then  they  refresh 
their  bodies;  murmuring,  they  hum  around  the  edges 
of  the  doorway.  Thereafter, when  now  they  are  quiet 
in  their  cells,  silence  deepens  with  night,  and  kindly 
slumber  overspreads  their  tired  limbs.  JVbr  indeed 
when  rain  threatens  do  they  withdraw  very  far  from 
their  folds,  or  trust  the  sky  when  east  winds  are  on 
their  way  ;  but  fetch  water  in  shelter  close  round 
their  city  walls,  and  essay  short  sallies,  and  often 
lift  pebbles,  as  boats  take  in  ballast  when  they  rock 
in  the  tossing  surge,  and  poise  themselves  so  among 
the  bodiless  clouds. 

This  custom  approved  of  bees  may  truly  waken  thy 
wonder,  that  they  neither  delight  in  bodily  union,  nor 
melt  away  in  languor  of  love,  nor  bear  their  young 
by  birth-throes  ;  but  straight  from  the  leaves  and 
scented  herbage  they  gather  their  children  in  their 
mouths,  themselves  keep  up  the  succession  of  king 
and  tiny  citizens,  and  fashion  anew  their  halls  and 
waxen  realm.  Often  moreover  in  wandering  they 
crush  their  wings  against  flinty  rocks  and  freely  yield 
their  life  beneath  the  burden ;  such  is  their  love  of 

93 


GEORGICS 

flowers  and  their  pride  in  honey-making.  Therefore, 
although  their  own  life  be  brief  and  soon  taken  to  its 
rest, — since  to  the  seventh  summer  it  lasts  and  no 
further, — yet  the  race  abides  immortal,  and  through 
many  years  the  Fortune  of  their  house  stands,  and 
their  ancestors  are  counted  to  the  third  and  fourth 
generation. 

Furthermore,  not  Egypt  and  mighty  Lydia,  not 
the  Tarthian  peoples  or  the  (Jldede  by  Hydaspes 
so  adore  their  king.  Their  king  safe,  all  are  of  one 
mind ;  he  lost,  they  break  allegiance,  plunder  the 
honey-cells  themselves  have  built,  and  break  open  the 
plaited  combs.  He  is  guardian  of  their  labours ;  him 
they  regard,  and  all  gather  round  in  murmuring 
throng  and  encompass  him  in  their  swarms ;  and 
often  lift  him  on  their  shoulders  and  shield  him  in 
war  with  their  bodies,  and  seek  through  wounds  a 
glorious  death. 

Noting  this  and  led  by  these  instances,  certain 
have  claimed  for  bees  a  share  of  some  divine  intelli- 
gence and  a  draught  of  the  springs  of  heaven.  For 
(pod,  they  say,  extends  through  all  lands  and  spaces 
of  sea  and  depths  of  sky  ;from  him  flocks  and  herds 
and  men  and  all  the  race  of  wild  creatures,  each  at 

94 


BOOK    IV 

birth,  draw  the  slender  stream  of  life ;  to  him  there- 
after all  things  as  surely  return,  and  are  dissolved 
into  him  again;  nor  is  there  place  for  death;  but  liv- 
ing they  Jlit  to  their  starry  mansions  and  rise  to  a 
heaven  above. 

If  ever  thou  wilt  unseal  their  imperial  dwellings 
and  the  stored  honey  in  their  treasuries,  first  sprinkle 
thyself  and  wash  thy  mouth  with  a  draught  of  wa- 
ter and  hold  forth  searching  smoke  in  thine  hand. 
Twice  men  gather  the  heavy  foison  in  two  seasons 
of  harvest :  so  soon  as  Taygete  the  Tleiad  shows 
forth  her  august  face  upon  the  world,  and  spurns 
with  her  foot  the  recoiling  ocean  streams ;  or  again 
when  retreating  before  the  star  of  the  rainy  Fish  she 
sinks  from  a  glooming  sky  into  the  wintry  waves. 
They  are  furious  beyond  measure,  and  when  attacked 
breathe  venom  in  their  bite,  and  fastening  on  the 
veins  leave  their  buried  stings  behind  and  lay  down 
their  lives  in  the  wound.  But  if,  dreading  a  hard 
winter,  thou  wilt  spare  future  provision  and  com- 
passionate their  broken  spirit  and  shattered  estate, 
yet  to  fumigate  with  thyme  and  cut  away  the  empty 
cells  who  could  hesitate  ?for  often  unnoticed  the  eft 
nibbles  at  the  combs,  and  beetles  build  their  nests 

95 


GEORGICS 

and  hide  out  of  the  light,  and  the  drone,  sitting  idle 
at  another's  board,  or  the  fierce  hornet  joins  battle 
with  overpowering  arms,  or  moths,  an  ill-omened 
tribe,  or  the  spider  hated  of  ^I4inerva  spreads  her 
loose  web  in  the  doorway.  The  lower  they  are  brought, 
the  more  eagerly  will  all  press  on  to  repair  the  ruin 
of  their  fallen  race,  and  will  fill  their  galleries  and 
build  their  woven  granaries  of  blossoms. 

If  indeed,  since  to  bees  also  life  brings  such  mis- 
chances as  ours,  they  droop  under  sore  bodily  ail- 
ment ;  —  and  this  thou  wilt  readily  know  by  no  un- 
certain signs :  straightway  their  colour  changes  in 
sickness ;  they  lose  their  looks  and  grow  thin  and 
haggard,  and  carry  out  of  doors  the  bodies  of  their 
dead  and  lead  the  gloomy  funeral  train ;  and  either 
hang  clutching  by  their  feet  at  the  doorway,  or  shut 
their  house  and  idle  within,  hungry  and  spiritless, 
and  benumbed  by  a  cramping  chill.  Then  a  deeper 
hum  is  heard,  and  they  murmur  in  long-drawn  tone, 
like  the  cold  south  wind  sighing  in  the  forest,  like 
the  hissing  waves  of  a  restless  ebbing  sea,  like  the 
fierce  fire  roaring  behind  the  furnace  doors.  Here- 
at  I  will  counsel  thee  to  burn  scented  gum,  and  drip 
honey  in  through  pipes  of  reed,  calling  with  unin- 
96 


BOOK    IV 

vited  urgence  the  tired  creatures  to  their  familiar 
food.  It  will  be  well  to  mingle  withal  juice  of  pound- 
ed galls,  and  dry  rose  leaves,  or  wine  boiled  thick 
over  a  strong  fire,  or  raisin-clusters  from  the  Psithian 
vine,  and  ^Attic  thyme  and  strong-smelling  cen- 
taury.  Likewise  there  is  a  meadow-flower  named 
amellus  by  husbandmen,  a  plant  easily  found  by  the 
seeker,  for  it  lifts  from  a  single  stalk  a  dense  growth 
of  shoots;  golden  the  flower,  but  the  petals  that  clus- 
ter thickly  round  it  are  dark  violet  shot  with  crim- 
son; often  the  gods'  altars  are  decked  with  its  woven 
wreaths ;  it  tastes  bitter  in  the  mouth ;  shepherds 
gather  it  in  the  cropped  valley  grass  and  beside  the 
winding  streams  of  \JVLdla.  Boil  the  roots  of  this 
in  fragrant  wine  and  set  it  in  basketfuls  for  food  by 
the  doorway. 

But  for  one  whom  the  whole  breed  shall  fail  of  a 
sudden,  and  he  have  nothing  left  to  renew  the  race 
in  a  fresh  family,  it  is  time  to  unfold  further  the 
famed  invention  of  the  ^Arcadian  keeper,  and  in 
what  wise  often  ere  now  bees  have  been  born  from 
the  putrefying  blood  of  a  slain  bullock.  <*JMore  fully 
will  I  discover  all  the  tale  and  trace  it  from  its  ear- 
liest source.  For  where  the  favoured  race  o 

97 


GEORGICS 

cedonian  Canopus  dwell  by  the  still  broad  overflow 
of  Nile  and  ride  round  their  own  farms  in  painted 
boats,  and  where  the  quivered  Tersian  land  presses 
nigh,  and  the  rushing  river  that  pours  straight  down 
from  the  swarthy  Indians  parts  into  seven  separate 
mouths  [_and  enriches  green  Egypt  with  its  dark 
sand"],  all  the  realm  builds  on  this  art  a  certain  rem- 
edy. First  a  small  room  is  chosen,  straitened  down 
just  to  serve  for  this;  they  confine  it  by  a  narrow 
tiled  roof  and  cramped  walls,  and  towards  the  four 
winds  add  four  windows  with  slanting  lights.  Then 
is  sought  a  calf  of  two  years  old,  with  horns  already 
curving  from  his  forehead;  his  double  nostrils  and 
breathing  mouth  are  sewed  up,  spite  of  all  his  strug- 
gling, and  he  is  beaten  to  death  and  the  flesh  pound- 
ed to  pulp  through  the  unbroken  skin.  Thus  they 
leave  him  shut  close,  laying  under  his  sides  broken 
boughs  and  thyme,  and  fresh  sprays  of  casia.  This 
is  done  when  west  winds  first  ruffle  the  waters,  ere 
yet  the  meadows  flush  with  fresh  colours,  ere  yet  the 
chattering  swallow  hang  her  nest  from  the  rafters. 
(^I4eanwhile  the  humours  heat  and  ferment  in  the 
soft  bones,  and  creatures  wonderfully  fashioned  may 

be  seen,  at  first  limbless,  but  soon  they  stir  with 
98 


BOOK    IV 

rustling  wings,  and  more  and  more  adventure  the 
delicate  air :  until  like  a  shower  bursting  from  sum- 
mer  clouds  they  swarm  forth,  or  like  arrows  from  the 
quivering  bowstring  when  light  Tarthian  skirmish- 
ers advance  to  battle. 

Who,  O  (»J/J4uses,  who  wrought  for  us  this  mira- 
culous art  ?  Whence  did  this  strange  experience  en- 
ter the  paths  of  men  ? 

The  shepherd Aristaeusjled from  Peneian  Tempe, 
his  bees  lost,  they  say,  by  sickness  and  scarcity,  and 
stood  sad  by  the  holy  spring  of  the  river-head,  and 
with  many  a  complaint  called  thus  upon  her  who 
bore  him.  <*Jl4other,  Cyrene  mother,  who  dwellest 
here  deep  beneath  the  flood,  why  hast  thou  borne  me 
in  the  gods'  illustrious  line — if  indeed  my  father  is 
he  whom  thou  sayest,  ^/f polio  of  Thymbra — to  be 
the  scorn  of  doom  ?  or  whither  is  thy  love  for  me 
swept  away  ?  why  didst  thou  bid  me  aspire  to  hea- 
ven ?  Lo,  even  this  mere  pride  of  my  mortal  life,  so 
hardly  wrought  out  by  infinite  endeavour  in  skilful 
tendance  of  harvest  and  herd,  this,  and  thou  art  my 
mother,  I  see  depart.  Nay  come,  and  with  thine  own 
hand  uproot  my  fruitful  orchards,  carry  destroying 
jire  into  the  folds  and  kill  the  harvests,  wither  the 

99 


GEORGICS 

cornfields  and  wield  the  strong  axe  upon  the  vines, 
if  thou  art  grown  so  weary  of  my  praise. 

But  from  her  chamber  in  the  river  depth  the  mo- 
ther  heard  his  cry.  o^/f  round  her  the  Nymphs  carded 
^Idilesianfleeces  stained  with  rich  sea-dyes,  'Dry- 
mo  and  Xantho9  Ligea  and  Thyllodoce,  their  bright 
tresses  falling  loose  over  their  snowy  necks;  and  Cy- 
dippe  and  golden-haired  Lycorias,  the  one  a  maid- 
en, the  other  even  then  knowing  thejirst  throes  of 
travail;  and  Clio,  and  Beroe  her  sister,  both  daugh- 
ters of  Ocean,  both  decked  with  gold,  both  girt  with 
dappled  skins ;  and  Ephyre  and  Opis  and  ^Asian 
'Deiopea,  and  fleet  ^/frethusa,  her  arrows  at  last 
laid  by.  <^And  among  them  Clymene  was  telling  of 
Vulcan  s  fruitless  care,  and  the  wiles  of^JMars  and 
the  stolen  sweetness,  and  recounting  from  Chaos 
downward  the  myriad  loves  of  the  gods.  And  while 
amid  the  witchery  of  her  song  the  soft  spun  wool 
curls  off  their  distaffs,  again  <>sfristaeus'  lament 
thrilled  his  mother's  ears,  and  all  were  motionless 
on  their  crystal  chairs ;  but  before  the  rest  of  the  sis- 
terhood ^4  rethusa  glanced  forth,  lifting  her  golden 
head  above  the  wave,  and  cried  from  far :  O  not 
vainly  startled  by  so  heavy  a  moan,  Cyrene  sister, 


IOO 


BOOK    IV 

he  thine  own,  thy  chief est  care,  mourning 
taeus  stands  in  tears  by  ancient  Teneus'  wave,  and 
calls  thee  cruel  and  names  thy  name.  To  her  the  mo- 
ther, stricken  in  soul  with  fresh  alarm ,  Lead  him, 
quick,  lead  him  to  us ;  he,  she  cries,  may  unforbidden 
tread  the  threshold  of  gods.  With  that  she  bids  the 
deep  streams  retire,  leaving  a  broad  path  for  his  steps 
to  enter  in.  But  round  him  the  mountain-wave  stood 
curving  and  clasped  him  in  its  mighty  fold,  and  sped 
him  beneath  the  river.  ^And  now  marvelling  at 
his  mother  s  home  and  watery  realm,  cavern-locked 
pools  and  roaring  forests,  he  passed  on,  and,  stunned 
by  the  vast  whirl  of  waters,  gazed  on  all  the  great 
floods  of  distant  regions  rolling  under  earth,  Tha- 
sis  and  Lycus,  and  the  spring  head  whence  breaks 
forth  high  Enipeus'  source,  whence  the  lord  of  Ti- 
ber and  whence  the  streams  of(^Anio,  and  Hypanis 
roaring  over  his  rocks,  and  (^Mysian  Caicus  and, 
with  the  twin  gilded  horns  on  his  bull's  forehead, 
Eridanus,  than  whom  no  other  river  flows  fiercer 
down  through  his  rich  tilth  into  the  shining  sea. 
zSffter  they  entered  the  chamber  with  its  hanging 
roof  of  rock,  and  Cyrene  heard  her  son's  idle  tale  of 
tears,  her  sisters  duly  pour  clear  spring-water  on  his 


IOI 


GEORGICS 

hands  and  bring  towels  with  dose-cut  fleece :  others 
pile  the  banquet  on  the  board  and  array  the  brim- 
ming cups;  flame  ofTanchaean  spice  swells  from 
the  altars ,  and  his  mother  cries,  Take  up  a  flagon  of 
(^Maeonian  wine;  let  us  pour  libation  to  Oceanus. 
Herself  therewithal  offers  prayer  to  Oceanus  father 
of  all  things,  and  to  the  Nymphs'  sisterhood  who 
have  an  hundred  forests,  an  hundred  floods  in  their 
keeping:  thrice  she  poured  clear  neftar  over  the  blaz- 
ing altar-fire,  thrice  the  flame  sank  and  flared  up 
again  to  the  crown  of  the  roof,  ^/fnd  strengthening 
his  courage  by  this  omen,  she  thus  begins : 

In  the  Carpathian  sea-gulf  dwells  a  soothsayer, 
blue  ^Proteus,  whose  chariot  yoked  withjishes  and 
twy -footed  coursers  spans  the  mighty  ocean  plain. 
He  now  visits  again  Emathias  borders  and  his 
birthplace  of  Tallene ;  to  him  we  Nymphs  do  wor- 
ship, and  aged  Nereus  our  lord;  for  he  has  the  seer's 
knowledge  of  all  things  that  are  or  that  have  been 
or  that  draw  nigh  to  their  coming :  this  by  grace  of 
Neptune,  whose  monstrous  flocks  and  ugly  seals  he 
herds  under  the  gulf  .  Him,  my  son,  must  thou  first 
enfetter,  that  he  may  fully  unfold  the  source  of  the 
sickness,  and  give  prosperous  issue.  For  without  force 


102 


BOOK    IV 

he  will  give  counsel  in  nowise,  nor  wilt  thou  bend 
him  by  entreaties ;  with  sheer  force  and  fetters  must 
thou  tie  thy  prisoner;  around  them  his  wiles  at  last 
will  break  unavailing.  Myself  will  lead  thee,  when 
the  sun  has  kindled  the  heat  ofnoon,when  the  grass 
is  athirst  and  the  shade  now  grows  more  grateful 
to  the  flock,  to  the  old  mans  covert,  his  retreat  from 
the  weary  waves,  that  while  he  lies  asleep  thou 
mayest  lightly  assail  him.  But  when  thou  shall  hold 
him  caught  and  fettered  in  thine  hands,  even  then 
the  form  and  visage  of  manifold  wild  beasts  shall 
mock  thee  ;for  in  a  moment  he  will  turn  to  a  bristly 
boar  or  a  black  tiger,  a  scaly  serpent  and  tawny  - 
necked  lioness,  or  will  roar  shrill  in  flame  and  so 
slip  out  of  the  fetters,  or  will  melt  into  thin  water 
and  be  gone.  But  the  more  he  changes  into  endless 
shapes,  the  more  do  thou,  my  son,  strain  tight  the 
grasp  of  his  fetters,  until  his  body  change  again  into 
the  likeness  thou  sawest  when  his  eyes  drooped  and 
his  sleep  began. 

So  says  she  and  sprinkles  on  him  liquid  scent  of 
ambrosia,  anointing  with  it  all  the  body  of  her  son : 
but  his  ranged  curls  breathed  a  sweet  fragrance, 

and  supple  strength  grew  in  his  limbs.  There  is  a  vast 

103 


GEORGICS 

cave  in  the  hollowed  mountain  side,  where  countless 
waves  are  driven  before  the  gale  and  break  among 
the  deep  recesses :  of  old  a  sure  anchorage  for  mari- 
ners caught  by  storm :  within  it  ^Proteus  takes  shel- 
ter behind  the  barrier  of  a  mighty  rock.  Here  the 
Nymph  places  her  son  in  hiding  aw  ay  from  the  light, 
and  herself  stands  apart,  dim  in  a  mist.  Now  fierce 
Sirius  blazed  from  the  sky,  scorching  the  thirsty  In- 
dian, and  the  fiery  sun  had  swept  to  his  mid  arch: 
the  grass  was  parched,  and  in  hollow  river-beds,  dry- 
mouthed,  the  heated  mud  baked  in  his  rays ;  when 
<Troteus  advanced  from  the  waves  to  seek  his  fam- 
iliar cavern;  around  him  the  wet  tribes  of  the  mighty 
deep  gambolling  splashed  wide  the  briny  spray.  His 
seals  stretch  themselves  asleep  here  and  there  along 
the  shore;  he,  as  some  guardian  of  a  hill-fold  when 
evening  leads  the  calves  homeward  from  pasture 
and  the  wolves  rouse  as  they  hear  the  bleating  of  the 
lambs,  takes  his  seat  on  a  rock  among  them  and  tells 
their  tale.  ^^4nd  upon  himAristaeus,  as  his  chance 
offers,  hardly  allowing  the  ancient  to  settle  his  weary 
limbs,  darts  with  a  loud  cry  and  slips  the  shackles 
over  him  as  he  lies.  He  in  return,  not  unmindful  of 

his  cunning,  transforms  himself  into  things  mani- 
104 


BOOK    IV 

fold  and  marvellous,  fire  and  dreadful  wild  beast 
andflowing  river.  But  when  none  of  his  magic  finds 
him  escape,  he  returns  foiled  into  his  own  shape  and 
at  length  speaks  with  human  visage:  ^/fh,  who  bade 
thee,  most  venturous  youth,  draw  nigh  our  home?  or 
what  wouldst  thou  ?  he  cries.  But  he :  Thou  know- 
est,  O  Troteus,  thyself  knowest :  nor  canst  thou  at 
all  delude  me.  But  cease  to  struggle.  Following  di- 
vine commands  we  are  come,  to  seek  here  oracular 
counsel  for  a  fallen  estate.  So  far  he  spoke :  thereat 
the  soothsayer  at  last  violently  rolled  the  glassy  orbs 
ofhisfiaming  eyes,  and  gnashing  his  teeth  heavily 
thus  gave  voice  to  fate : 

Not  save  by  wrath  of  deity  art  thou  plagued : 
great  is  the  crime  thou  dost  expiate.  This  punish- 
ment wretched  Orpheus  for  no  desert  of  his  calls 
forth  upon  thee — unless  Fate  oppose — in  mad  grief 
for  his  wife  torn  away.  She  indeed,jlying  headlong 
before  thee  through  the  river,  saw  not  her  death  up- 
on her  in  the  deep  grass  before  her  girlish  feet,  where 
that  monstrous  snake  guarded  the  bank.  But  the 
band  of  her  Ttry  ad  playmates  filled  the  mountain 
summits  with  their  cries  :  <T$hpdopeian  fortresses 
wept,  and  Tangaean  heights  andcRhesus  martial 

105 


GEORGICS 

land,  0-etae  and  Hebrus,  and  ^/[Stian  Orithyia. 
He,  soothing  his  love-sickness  on  his  hollow  shell, 
sang  ofthee,  O  sweet  wife,  ofthee  alone  on  the  soli- 
tary shore,  ofthee  at  day  spring,  ofthee  at  the  death 
of  day.  Even  that  gorge  of  Taenarus,  the  high  gate- 
way of  Tfe,  and  the  grove  that  glooms  in  horror  of 
darkness  he  entered,  and  drew  nigh  the  ghostly  peo- 
ple and  their  awful  king,  and  the  hearts  that  know 
not  to  melt  at  human  supplications.  But,  startled 
by  his  song,  from  the  deep  sunken  realm  of  Erebus 
thin  shadows  rose  and  phantoms  of  the  lost  to  light, 
millionfold  as  birds  shelter  in  the  leaves  when  even- 
fall  or  wintry  rain  drives  them  from  the  hill;  ma- 
trons and  men  and  bodies  of  high-hearted  heroes 
whose  life  was  done,  boys  and  unwedded  girls  and 
young  men  laid  on  the  pyre  before  their  parents' 
eyes:  whom  all  round  the  black  slime  and  ugly  reeds 
of  Cocytus  and  the  sluggish  wave  of  the  unlovely 
pool  enfetter,  and  Styx  severs  with  the  barrier  of 
her  ninefold  flood.  Nay,  the  very  halls  of  death  and 
Hell's  recesses  were  amazed,  and  the  Furies  with 
livid  serpents  twined  in  their  tresses ;  Cerberus  held 
his  triple  jaws  agape,  and  Ixions  whirling  wheel 
hung  motionless  on  the  wind.  And  now  his  return- 

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BOOK    IV 

ing  feet  had  outsped  every  peril,  and  his  regained 
Eurydice  was  issuing  to  upper  air,  following  at  his 
back — for  thus  had  Proserpine  ordained — when  a 
sudden  madness  seized  the  unwary  lover, surely  to  be 
forgiven,  if  ^Death  knew  forgiveness.  He  stopped; 
his  own  Eurydice  was  just  on  the  edge  of  daylight; 
forgetful,  alas!  and  impassioned  he  looked  round  on 
her.  There  all  his  toil  was  spilt  and  the  treaty  bro- 
ken with  that  merciless  monarch;  and  thrice  a  thun- 
der pealed  over  the  pools  of^Avernus.  Who,  woe's 
me !  she  cries,  hath  destroyed  me,  and  thee  with  me, 
Orpheus  ?  what  frenzy  is  this  ?  Lo,  again  the  cruel 
fates  call  me  backward,  and  sleep  hides  my  swim- 
ming eyes.  And  now  goodbye:  I  pass  away  wrapped 
in  a  great  darkness,  and  helplessly  stretching  to- 
wards thee  the  hands  that,  alas!  are  not  thine.  She 
spoke,  and  suddenly  out  of  his  eyes,  like  vapour  melt- 
ing in  the  thin  air,  fled  into  the  distance,  neither  saw 
him  more  as  he  vainly  grasped  at  the  shadows  and 
fain  would  say  many  a  word;  nor  did  the  gate- 
keeper of  Orcus  suffer  him  again  to  cross  that  bar- 
ring pool.  What  could  he  do  ?  or  whither  turn  now 
his  wife  was  twice  torn  away  ?  how  with  words  or 
with  weeping  stir  the  realm  ofDeath?  and  she  even 

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GEORGICS 

now  floated  cold  in  the  Stygian  bark.  Seven  whole 
months  unbroken  they  say  he  wept  beneath  an  aery 
rock  by  Strymons  solitary  wave,  and  poured  forth 
all  his  tale  deep  in  icy  caverns,  soothing  tigresses 
and  moving  oaks  with  song :  even  as  the  nightingale 
mourning  under  the  poplar  shade  moans  her  lost 
brood,  whom  the  cruel  ploughman  has  marked  and 
torn  unfledged  from  the  nest :  but  she  weeps  night- 
long, and  seated  on  the  bough  renews  her  pitiable 
song  and  Jills  the  region  round  with  her  mournful 
complaint.  Never  did  love  nor  ever  a  bridal  stir  his 
spirit :  alone  he  ranged  Hyperborean  icefields  and 
snowy  Tanais  and  <rR]upaean  plains  that  never  un- 
loose their  frosts,  murmuring  over  his  lost  Eurydice 
and  the  vain  gifts  of  Ttis :  till  slighted  by  such  tri- 
bute, Ciconian  matrons,  amid  divine  sacrifice  and 
Bacchic  revels  by  night,  rent  him  asunder  and  scat- 
tered him  wide  over  the  land.  Even  then,  when  torn 
from  the  marble  neck  his  head  went  rolling  down 
the  mid-eddies  of  Oeagrian  Hebrus,  the  very  voice 
and  chill  tongue  cried  Eurydice !  ah  poor  Eurydice ! 
as  their  life  ebbed  away :  Eurydice !  the  banks  re- 
echoed all  down  the  stream. 

Thus  Troteus,  and  sprang  with  a  bound  into  the 

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BOOK    IV 

sea  depths,  and  where  he  sprang  the  wave  spun  ed- 
dying in  foam.  But  not  so  Cyrene :  for  she  accosted 
him  in  words  of  cheer: 

O  my  son,  thou  mayest  dismiss  the  care  that  sad- 
dens thy  soul.  This  is  all  the  source  of  the  sickness; 
this  why  the  Nymphs  with  whom  she  wheeled  the 
dance  in  depth  of  groves  have  dealt  destruction  on 
thy  poor  lees.  *Do  thou  humbly  seek  their  favour  with 
gifts  outstretched,  and  worship  the  gracious  maidens 
of  the  lawn  :for  to  thy  prayers  they  will  yield  par- 
don and  relent  from  wrath.  But  first  I  will  tell  thee 
duly  what  is  the  way  of  supplication.  Choose  out 
four  noble  bulls  of  stately  girth  that  now  graze  the 
heights  of  green  Lycaeus,  and  as  many  heifers  whose 
neck  knows  not  the  yoke ;  for  these  rear  four  altars 
by  the  lofty  shrines  of  the  goddesses,  and  let  the  de- 
voted blood  trickle  from  their  throats,  and  leave  the 
bodies  of  the  oxen  alone  in  the  leafy  copse.  There- 
after, when  the  ninth  dawn  brightens  to  her  birth, 
thou  shall  send  Lethean  poppies  for  funeral  gifts  to 
Orpheus,  and  adore  appeased  Eurydice  with  a  slain 
heifer-calf,  and  sacrifice  a  black  ewe  and  again  seek 
the  grove. 

^Delaying  not,  forthwith  he  fulfils  his  mother  s 

109 


GEORGICS 

counsels.  He  comes  to  the  shrines ;  he  bids  the  or- 
dained altars  rise; four  noble  bulls  of  stately  girth  he 
leads  up,  and  as  many  heifers  whose  neck  knows  not 
the  yoke ;  thereafter,  when  the  ninth  dawn  had  risen 
to  her  birth,  he  sends  funeral  gifts  to  Orpheus  and 
again  seeks  the  grove.  Here  indeed  they  descry  a  por- 
tent sudden  and  strange  to  tell;  bees  humming  among 
the  dissolving  flesh  of  the  carcases  and  swarming 
forth  from  the  rent  sides  of  the  oxen,  and  trailing  in 
endless  clouds,  till  now  they  stream  together  on  the 
tree-top  and  hang  clustering  from  the  pliant  boughs. 

#  #  # 

Thus  I  sang  of  the  tending  of  fields  andjlocks  and 
trees,  while  great  Caesar  hurled  wars  lightnings 
by  high  Euphrates  and  gave  statutes  among  the  na- 
tions in  welcome  supremacy,  and  scaled  the  path  to 
heaven.  Even  in  that  season  I,  Virgil,  nurtured  in 
sweet  Parthenope,  went  in  the  flowery  ways  of  lowly 
Quiet :  I  who  once  played  with  shepherd's 
songs,  and  in  youths  hardihood 
sang  thee,  O  Tityrus,  un- 
der the  covert  of 
spreading 
beech. 
* 


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